Nowadays, consumers are more aware and conscious about health concerns
related to foods, which increase their demand for more safe food, particularly meats,
free of additives such as preservatives, and if so with natural ones. In line with this,
bacteriocinogenic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and their bacteriocins have been widely
screened and studied in the last years in view of their use in meat biopreservation. This
chapter presents an emphasised overview regarding enterococci and their produced
bacteriocins (enterocins) as part of interesting LAB and biomolecules with promising
potentialities to be used in meat preservation as alternatives to synthetic preservatives
thus satisfying consumers’ demand for healthy and “bio” meat. Indeed, the
characteristics of enterococci and enterococcal bacteriocins were described based on
published literature. Further, we have reviewed some of the research on their
applications for biopreservation of meat and meat products with a focused discussion
on diverse topics such as their advantages as well as the challenges and limits of their
use in meat. Finally, the synergistic approaches based on combinations of enterococcal
protective cultures and/or enterococcal bacteriocins with other technological concepts
to improve safety and quality of meats are reported and discussed.
Keywords: Application, Bacteriocin, Biopreservation, Biopreservative,
Enterococci, Enterococcus, Enterocin, Lactic acid bacteria, Listeria
monocytogenes, Meat, Pathogen, Protective culture, Spoilage.
