Antifungal mechanism of essential oil against foodborne fungi and its application in the preservation of baked food

Abstract

Baked food is one of the most important staple foods in people’s life, but its shelf life is limited. In addition, the spoilage of baked food caused by microbial deterioration will not only cause huge economic losses, but also pose a serious threat to human health. At present, due to the improvement of consumers’ health awareness, the use of chemical preservatives has been gradually restricted. Compared with other types of synthetic preservatives, essential oils are becoming more and more popular because they are in line with the current development trend of “green,” “safety” and “health” of food additives. Therefore, in this paper, we first summarized the main factors affecting the fungal contamination of baked food. Then analyzed the antifungal activity and mechanism of essential oil. Finally, we comprehensively summarized the application strategy of essential oil in the preservation of baked food. This review is of great significance for fully understanding the antifungal mechanism of essential oils and promoting the application of essential oils in the preservation of baked food.

Keywords:

• Essential oil
• active components
• antifungal mechanism
• baked products
• application strategy

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32202192), Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2020MC213).

Author contributions

Jian Ju: Conceptualization, Investigation, Data curation, Writing. Hao Wu: Visualization, Methodology. Fangyuan Zhao: Visualization, Methodology. Qianyu Li and Jinglin Huang: Writing-review, Supervision.

Disclosure statement

All authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.