Recent food applications of microbial surfactants

Abstract

Owing to their natural origin and environmental compatibility, interest in microbial surfactants or biosurfactants has gained attention during last few years. These characteristics fulfill the demand of regulatory agencies and society to use more sustained and green chemicals. Microbial-derived surfactants can replace synthetic surfactants in a great variety of industrial applications as detergents, foaming, emulsifiers, solubilizers, and wetting agents. Change in the trend of consumers toward natural from synthetic additives and the increasing health and environmental concerns have created demand for new "green" additives in foods. Apart from their inherent surface-active properties, biosurfactants have shown antimicrobial and anti-biofilm activities against food pathogens; therefore, biosurfactants can be versatile additives or ingredients of food processing. These interesting applications will be discussed in this review.

Keywords: Biosurfactants; anti-adhesive; anti-biofilm; antimicrobial; bioemulsifiers; food pathogens.