Document Type : Review Article
Authors
Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, University of Maragheh, Maragheh, Iran
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.
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