Post-harvest application of lytic bacteriophages for biocontrol of food-borne pathogens and spoilage bacteria

Bacteriophages are a promising tool to combat pathogenic bacteria along the food chain. In this review we give a comprehensive overview about studies that have been carried out to appraise the potential of phages to reduce the number of foodborne pathogens and spoilage bacteria in food products. The published data demonstrate that phages are generally suited for such applications, albeit high numbers of phages had to be applied in most experiments. The level of attainable reduction largely depended on the food matrix and the physiochemical conditions. However, microbial reductions of more than two orders of magnitude have been achieved in many studies. This review summarizes a vast quantity of papers describing the reduction of pathogens on food products by phages and demonstrates where phage applications are more or less promising. Based on these data we discuss the merits and drawbacks of post-harvest applications of phages.