Food Safety and Packaging
Food Safe Package

Bacteriophages: Promising biologic approach to combat pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae in the food industry

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

Raheleh Majdani
Samira Ghaemi

Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, University of Maragheh, Maragheh, Iran

https://doi.org/10.30466/fsp.2026.56864.1027
Abstract
With the increasing global population and growing demand for safe, high-quality food, ensuring sustainable food security has become a major concern worldwide. One of the fundamental challenges in this regard is bacterial foodborne illness. The use of antibiotics and other chemical antimicrobials as food preservatives has significant undesirable side effects and can damage the texture of food. In addition, consumers believe that the use of natural antimicrobials is beneficial. Therefore, bacteriophages (phages), effective re-emerging viral agents, can be introduced as good antimicrobial candidates in different stages of the food industry. They are unique and biological with highly specific functions against pathogens. The current study addresses the important properties of phages for use as biological antimicrobials. Several studies on isolating appropriate bacteriophages against pathogenic genera of Enterobacteriaceae bacteria were reviewed. From an applied perspective, studies that have used phages to reduce or eliminate the microbial load of Enterobacteriaceae pathogens have been analyzed.

Keywords

Bacteriophage
Enterobacteriaceae
Food industry
Preservative
Subjects
Food Safety and Packaging
Volume 2, Issue 1
Winter 2026
Pages 1-14

  • Receive Date 12 December 2025
  • Revise Date 31 January 2026
  • Accept Date 12 February 2026

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