Natural antimicrobial-coated supports as filter aids for the microbiological stabilisation of drinks

Abstract

Abstract The strategy of applying surface modifications to inert supports to improve their physicochemical, biological and functional properties can be adopted to develop novel filtering materials by modifying surfaces of widely used materials with biocompatible antimicrobial molecules. This approach would enable overcoming the limitations of conventional filtration methodologies in water treatment and the microbial stabilisation of drinks. The covalent immobilisation of naturally-occurring antimicrobial compounds on filter surfaces allows the antimicrobial effectiveness of the anchored molecule to be preserved by conferring the support material antimicrobial and antifouling properties. This review focuses on describing the naturally-occurring antimicrobials used in the food industry to either prevent growth or inhibit microorganisms, and defines the most established immobilisation methodologies by reviewing the different materials that can be used as grafting supports, and providing details of some examples of naturally-occurring antimicrobial compounds immobilised on filter aids applied to microbiologically stabilise beverages. Besides overviewing the most recent research, this work discusses the advantages, limitations and challenges of developing natural antimicrobial-coated filter aids, and it points out the innovation potential beyond current research on different supports and applications. Before such aids are applied to a real environment, more knowledge on safety and manufacturing is needed on the industrial scale. Therefore, the information in this review may be valuable to extend new emerging preservation technologies to control the food and drink microbial contamination that results in minimally processed products.