Postbiotics, as Dynamic Biomolecules, and Their Promising Role in Promoting Food Safety

Many factors threaten food safety, such as physical, chemical, and biological hazards. In this regard, biological hazards are of paramount importance. Among them, the bacteria play important roles in causing food spoilage and food-borne diseases. Besides, a new approach has been used in recent years, which is based on probiotics and postbiotics to control the growth of pathogenic germs and their mediated corruption due to their significant antimicrobial properties. The outcomes of recent investigations suggest that postbiotics might be appropriate alternative elements for probiotic cells and can be employed as novel antimicrobial agents. The main antimicrobial mechanisms of postbiotics include acidifying the cellular cytoplasm and preventing energy regulation and production, suppressing the growth of pathogenic microorganisms by the formation of pores in cell membranes, and morphological and functional changes of sensitive components such as proteins and peptides by creating acidity in the bacterial cell membrane as well as inducing the oxidation of bacterial cells. Therefore, presently scientific literature approves that postbiotics can be applied as promising tools in food practice to prevent microbial corruption and develop functional foods due to their unique features. This review addresses the latest postbiotic applications with regards to food safety. Potential postbiotic applications in the inhibition of food spoilage and pathogenic microbes, food biopreservation, and biofilm control are also reviewed.