CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

In Argentina, the hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is considered endemic, and the principal infective agent is Escherichia coli O157:H7. HUS is the main cause of acute renal failure and the second cause of chronic kidney failure and kidney transplantation in children in Argentina. In the meat industry, several episodes of contamination in fermented dry sausages were registered with this pathogen. Active packaging technology employing polymeric materials as support for antimicrobial agents can improve the food hygienic-sanitary quality. The Fibrous film is used for embedding salamis, the obtaining of an active film would be of great importance in the production of artisan salamis since there is no rigorous control of the pH and water activity, which, can lead to a slow acidification, where the growth of pathogenic microorganisms could be favored. Microcin J25(G12Y) [MccJ25 (G12Y)] is an antimicrobial peptide with great potential as an additive in the food industry for its activity on E. coli O157: H7 and its sensitivity to digestive tract enzymes. Our results demonstrated that MccJ25(G12Y) did not inhibit the growth of E. coli O157: H7 in meat, atleast up to 4 mg/ml of microcin concentration. The hypothesis was that the elevated fat content of the meat could be interfering in microcin activity. Tween 80 is a surfactant approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in foods, which has the ability to destabilize and emulsify fats. Surprisingly, our results showed that the addition of MccJ25(G12Y) (4mg/ml) + Tween 80 (0.1%) totally inhibited the growth of E. coli O157: H7 in meat. According to this, the objective of this work was the characterization of a fibrous film active with MccJ25(G12Y)+Tween 80 for its potential use in the meat industry. Based on this, the aims were determined the minimum contact time, minimum MccJ25(G12Y) concentration for film activation, stability of active film and microcin migration in food simulants.