Organic acid preservation

Mollapour, M. and Piper, P. W. 2001. The ZbYME2 gene from the food spoilage yeast Zygosaccharomyces bailii confers not only YME2 functions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but also the capacity for catabolism of sorbate and benzoate, two major weak organic acid preservatives. Molecular Microbiology 42 919-930. 

Until recently, the use of sorbic acid was a standard approach for preservation in the food industry. However, much attention has now focused on the development of resistance against this weak organic acid preservative (Brul et al., 2002). 

Little information exists on the activity of organic acids against viruses. However, enteric viruses have been shown not to possess similar susceptibility to weak organic acids compared to bacteria and consequently survive well in organic acid preserved foodstuffs such as lactate-fermented products (Adams and Nicolaides, 1997). 

Problems associated with organic acid preservation... 

Table 8 Percentage of the undissociated form of organic acid preservatives...

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