VEGELAB: New extremophilic microorganisms as biological control agents for post-harvest of ready-to-eat fruits and vegetables.
The international VEGELAB project, led by the Granada-based company DOMCA, in collaboration with the technology consultancy CLEVER I+C, the Russian company PROSVET, the University of Kemerovo (Siberia) and the University of Granada, has led to the isolation of new bacteria with potential applications in the agri-food sector.
The Sierra Nevada massif is an ecosystem of great biotechnological interest for the isolation and study of psychrophilic microorganisms, which are those capable of living in environments under extreme cold conditions. Thanks to the VEGELAB project, researchers from Granada, represented by the Department of Microbiology of DOMCA and the BIO 160 group “Study of antagonistic substances produced by microorganisms” of the University of Granada have been able to isolate psychrophilic bacteria with potential application in food preservation.
This project, financed by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Regional Operational Programme for Intelligent Growth, has been successfully completed after almost two years of intense scientific work. Together with the team from Granada, Russian researchers from the company PROSVET and the Institute of Food Science of the University of Kemerovo have worked with microorganisms isolated from the cold environments of the Siberian region. In addition, this Russian-Spanish consortium has managed to characterise new antimicrobial compounds from these bacteria, which are of particular interest in the control of pathogens such as E. coli o Salmonella. «During these months we have worked with thousands of microorganisms from Sierra Nevada, studying the most interesting ones until we selected a few with clear commercial projection. We have evaluated many properties, although we have mainly focused on the antibiosis capacity and safety aspects,» says Dr. Alberto Baños, the scientific head of the project.
The food industry is increasingly demanding new natural preservation processes in an attempt to dispense with traditional chemical additives. Although refrigeration continues to be one of the most widely used preservation methods today, there are microorganisms capable of proliferating at low temperatures, causing food spoilage and contamination.
The VEGELAB project has focused on the isolation of beneficial psychrophilic micro-organisms capable of inhibiting the growth of food-borne pathogenic and spoilage bacteria, such as Listeria monocytogenes. «Bacteria from cold environments have been forced to develop a whole series of strategies throughout their evolution to ensure their survival. This fact is of great interest to the scientific community, as these peculiarities can have very interesting applications, for example in food preservation,» says Dr Baños.
The results obtained will allow the development of new bio-preservatives that, when applied in the food refrigeration and transport chains, will improve food safety and increase its shelf life. In addition, the project has highlighted the Sierra Nevada territory as a unique space on the planet and a source of incalculable value of microbial biodiversity.
