CLASSIFICATION OF ANTIMICROBIALS
Food preservation has an extensive historical record of
discovery and application for preventing food deterioration
and extending the shelf life of perishable food ingredients.
Food preservation approaches can be categorized
as physical, chemical, or biological. Physical methods include
drying, cold storage, freezing, and modified atmospheric
packaging (Farkas, 2001). The list of chemical
additives developed over the years is rather extensive,
but traditional antimicrobials have included organic acids
and esters, various salt compounds, and specific compounds
such as lysozyme (Davidson, 2001).