How a Vietnamese Raw Pork Snack Could Help Us Keep Food Fresh, Naturally

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PICTURE: Vietnamese fermented pork snack, Nem Chua. view After

Credit: RMIT University

A traditional Vietnamese meat snack could be the key to developing a safe and natural food preservative, tackling the twin global problem of food waste and foodborne illness.

Key points

  • Bacteria-killing compound found in Nem Chua, a fermented pork snack
  • Toxic to bacteria but harmless to humans, it is a natural alternative to artificial food preservatives
  • New study reveals ideal growing conditions to potentially manufacture the bacteria killer on an industrial scale

The fermented pork snack, Nem Chua, is eaten raw but does not cause food poisoning when prepared correctly.

This is because the good bacteria that thrive in fermented meat produce a special compound that destroys the most dangerous bacteria.

Today, researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia have shown how this natural bacteria-killing compound could be used to keep food fresher for longer.

Food waste is a global problem that costs around $ 680 billion a year in industrialized countries, consumes almost a quarter of the water used in agriculture and produces 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Foodborne illnesses such as Listeria or Salmonella affect millions of people every year and can put the lives of pregnant women, the elderly and those with compromised immunity at risk.

Co-lead researcher Professor Oliver Jones said changes in consumption patterns have led to increased demand for natural alternatives to artificial food preservatives.

“Scientists have known about these bacteria-killing compounds for many years, but the challenge is to produce them in quantities large enough for use by the food industry,” said Jones, associate dean of biosciences and food technology at RMIT. .

“The Nem Chua compound is colorless, odorless, tasteless and very resistant.

“Thanks to this new research, we have identified the right growing conditions that would allow us to manufacture it in large quantities, potentially on industrial scales.

“With further developments, we hope this could be an effective, safe and all-natural solution to food waste and foodborne illness.”

Weapon that kills bacteria

A team of RMIT researchers were inspired to study Nem Chua for its potential antibacterial properties after traveling to Vietnam and watching people eat the raw meat snack without getting sick, despite the hot and humid climate.

The team, led by Professor Andrew Smith (now at Griffith University) and Dr Bee May, discovered a new type of bacteria-killing compound in Nem Chua.

Plantacycline B21AG is one of a group of compounds called bacteriocins, which are produced by bacteria to destroy rival bacterial strains.

Bacteriocins form holes in the membranes of target bacteria. This causes the contents of the cell to leak, effectively killing the bacteria.

The problem is, most bacteriocins only work against one or two types of bacteria, and they’re not very stable under different environmental conditions.

Only one – nisin, which hit the market in the 1960s – is currently licensed for use as a food preservative, in an estimated market of over $ 513 million in 2020, but this compound is temperature sensitive and to pH, which limits its use.

Robust and efficient

The compound derived from Nem Chua is more robust than nisin and is effective against a wide range of bacteria even after exposure to a range of typical food processing environments.

It can survive heating at 90 ° C for 20 minutes and remains stable at high and low pH levels.

The compound can also destroy a range of pathogens commonly found in foods, including life-threatening Listeria, which can survive refrigeration and even freezing.

Co-Principal Investigator Dr Elvina Parlindungan, who completed the new study as part of her doctoral research at RMIT, is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at APC Microbiome, which is part of University College Cork in Ireland.

“Using bacteriocins as food preservatives effectively means that we turn bacteria’s own toxic weapons against them – harnessing nature’s smart solutions to meet our big challenges,” Parlindungan said.

“In the future, these compounds could also be useful as an antibiotic in human medicine.”

Researchers at RMIT’s School of Science have started experimenting with methods to further purify the compound and plan to incorporate it into tested food products.

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The team is keen to collaborate with potential industry partners to further develop the technology.

This work was supported by a PhD scholarship from the Indonesian Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP), which is part of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, awarded to Parlindungan.

“Factors that influence the growth and production of bacteriocins in Lactiplantibacillus plantarum B21”, with co-author Dr Chaitali Dekiwadia (RMIT Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility), is published in Process biochemistry (DOI:? 10.1016 / j.procbio.2021.05.009).

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