Application of bacteriophage as food preservative to control enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC)
Diana Elizabeth Waturangi, Cecillia Pingkan Kasriady, Geofany Guntama, Amelinda Minerva Sahulata, Diana Lestari, Stella Magdalena
Abstract
Abstract Objectives This study was conducted to characterize lytic bacteriophages infecting enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) on several types of food and analyze their ability as phage biocontrol to be used as a food preservative. Characterization was done for bacteriophage morphology and stability, along with the determination of minimum multiplicity of infection (miMOI), and application of bacteriophage in the food matrix. Results Out of the five samples, BL EPEC bacteriophage exhibited the highest titer of 2.05 × 10 9 PFU/mL, with a wide range of pH tolerance, and high thermal tolerance. BL EPEC also showed the least reduction after 168 h of incubation, with a rate of 0.90 × 10 –3 log 10 per hour. Bacteriophages from BL EPEC and CS EPEC showed an ideal value of miMOI of 0.01. As a food preservative, BL EPEC bacteriophage was able to reduce bacteria in food samples with a reduction above 0.24 log 10 in lettuce and approximately 1.84 log 10 in milk. From this study we found that BL EPEC bacteriophage showed the greatest potential to be used as phage biocontrol to improve food safety