Bacteriophages and Food Production: Biocontrol and Bio-Preservation Options for Food Safety

Food safety and sustainable food production is an important part of the Sustainable Development goals aiming to safeguard the health and wellbeing of humans, animals and the environment. Foodborne illness is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly as the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance proliferates. In order to actively move towards sustainable food production, it is imperative that green biocontrol options are implemented to prevent and mitigate infectious disease in food production. Replacing current chemical pesticides, antimicrobials and disinfectants with green, organic options such as biopesticides is a step towards a sustainable future. Bacteriophages, virus which infect and kill bacteria are an area of great potential as biocontrol agents in agriculture and aquaculture. Lytic bacteriophages offer many advantages over traditional chemical-based solutions to control microbiological contamination in the food industry. The innate specificity for target bacterial species, their natural presence in the environment and biocompatibility with animal and humans means phages are a practical biocontrol candidate at all stages of food production, from farm-to-fork. Phages have demonstrated efficacy as bio-sanitisation and bio-preservation agents against many foodborne pathogens, with activity against biofilm communities also evident. Additionally, phages have long been recognised for their potential as therapeutics, prophylactically and metaphylactically. Further investigation is warranted however, to overcome their limitations such as formulation and stability issues, phage resistance mechanisms and transmission of bacterial virulence factors.