Bacteriocins: Natural, bio-safe preservatives and biological alternatives for chemical additives

Nowadays consumers are aware of the importance of food additives on their health; demands for "natural" and" traditional" foods without any addition of chemical preservatives are increasing every day. On the otherhand resistance to bacterial antibiotics and adverse effects created by some of them have been led to concerns. Therefore, one of the alternatives to meet these needs is nonpathogenic microorganisms such as lactic acid bacteria bacteriocins that because of their “safe” (GRAS) status widely are used in food industry, medicine and animal health as bio-preservatives. That's why they are used in various cases such as increasing the shelf life, clinical antimicrobial activity and flora fermentation control. Thus, the present study is a review of the bacteriocins basic issues, technological applications and recent perspectives in development strategies.