Antioxidant or Antimicrobial Nature of Essential Oils to Minimize Food Waste

Food preservation is one of the most challenging problems in today's world as peoples are more health aware and they need natural, healthy, and nutritional foods. The food-borne pathogenic microorganisms make food spoilage, which is unhealthy for humans. Food industries are using synthetic additives for food preservation, but they cause side effects and being toxic to humans and the environment. To overcome this problem plant based essential oils (EO) are used as food preservatives because of the presence of different active phytochemical for their antioxidant or antimicrobial potential as a substitute to synthetic additives in different food matrices to increase their shelf life, freshness and maintain their nutritional and sensory properties. EOs have been used since ancient times as traditional medicine and considered as safe for use. Its demand has been increased in the last few years from the food industries. The mode of application of essential oils is also important for their use in active food packaging and preservatives for various food products based on their physical and chemical stability to limit their concentration and their application in different combinations to retain their efficacy as an active antimicrobial or antioxidant agent in the different food systems. In food industries, there is a need to explore the potential role of essential oil and its chemical components as a natural antimicrobial agent for food preservation to inhibit bacterial growth in different food systems in the future.