Technologies on preservation of food products help in maintaining its nutritional values and ensure its safety issues. These are the current areas of food research. For the preservation of food products many chemicals are being used for the activation of food borne pathogens. Chemical preservatives have undesirable side effects like alteration in the constituents, nutritional, and organoleptic properties of the food and toxic effects on human health. Despite all these measures, food borne diseases by pathogenic bacteria do occur frequently. The ever increasing demands of ready to eat food products without chemical preservation have led to development of new techniques of using biopreservatives. Biopreservatives extends the storage time of high quality foodstuff without using chemical preservatives. Hence with the increasing demand for biopreservatives, bacteriocin has caught the attention of food researchers in industries [1].
Numerous strains of Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) associated with food systems produce bacteriocin defined as proteinaceous substance that exhibit bactericidal activity against closely related organisms [2].
Considering that bacteriocin producing LAB are mostly isolated from foods like dairy and meat products, these antimicrobial substances have been consumed for a long time. Several bacteriocins from Gram positive bacteria are very effective, have broad inhibitory spectra and may be used as antimicrobial agents for various practical applications [3].
Antagonistic effects produced by lactic acid bacteria toward other organisms may play an important role in maintaining a proper microbial balance in the intestinal tract and preserving certain foods. Some bacteria produce bacteriocins which are protein or protein related complexes that inhibit other bacteria that are usually closely related.
Most bacteriocins are heat stable and sensitive to certain proteolytic enzymes. Lactic acid bacteria are widely used as starter cultures and play an important role in food preservation, microbiological stability and production of aroma compounds [4].