The microbial safety and stability as well as the The most important hurdles used in food preservasensory
and nutritional quality of most foods is based tion are temperature (high or low), water activity
on an application of combined preservative factors (a ), acidity (pH), redox potential (Eh), preserva- w
(called hurdles). This is true for traditional foods tives (e.g., nitrite, sorbate, sulfite), and competitive
with inherent empirical hurdles as well as for novel microorganisms (e.g., lactic acid bacteria). However,
products for which the hurdles are intelligently more than 60 potential hurdles for foods, which
selected and then intentionally applied (Leistner, improve the stability and/or quality of the products,
1995a).