Essential oils for preservatives

In several industries, essential oils are necessary preservatives to control the growth of pathogenic microbes in foods. This ensures that food items retain the desired sensory, chemical, physical, microbiological, and functional characteristics. The industries use pure rosemary, cinnamon, clove, black pepper, sage, garlic, lavender, oregano, and ginger, and others in preservation. Also used are “fruit peel” oils such as orange, lemon, line, grapefruit essential oils. These pure essential oils are quite viable in preservation of meats, fruits and vegetables because of their antimicrobial and antioxidant abilities. In this section we walk through a series of preservation applications fof essential oils

Preservatives for Meats and Fish products

Meat and meat products will most often suffer quality deterioration due to their complex composition. They consist of different saturated and unsaturated lipids (fats), proteins, carbohydrates, and others. Loss of quality is indicated by unacceptable odour, color changes. In extreme cases, there is visible evidence of growths and organisms. These all start with chemical changes and growth of microbes in the meat. If not checked, the degradation of meats (livestock, poultry and fish stocks) can cause severe health problems. Problems stretch from the consumer, and economic losses for farms, abbatoirs and meat stores. It is necessary, therefore, for meat products to be safely stowed for as many days  as possible. This will allow for safe transportation from the source markets to offshore and inland markets, to stores and to the family dinner table.

The most common reason for chemical degradation is lipid (fat) oxidation which leads to rancidness, discoloration and accumulation of potentially toxic compounds that are harmful to human health. Suppressing lipid oxidation and preventing bacterial growth are major means of extending the shelf life of meat and meat products. Essential oils required, therefore, have strong antioxidative and antimicrobial agents and possess anticarcinogenic and antimutagenic properties.

How to use essential oils for preservatives:

Pre-treat your meats before cold storage to enhance quality and longer storage. Use a 1-2% concentration of pure essential oil in sterile distilled water (1-2ml of essential oil for every 10ml of sterile distilled water) in an immersion dip. Meats are dipped in the immersion dip which lasts for 15-20 minutes before storage. In other instances, brine (salt solution) has been used in place of steriel distlled water. At these low levels of dosing, the sensory qualities (smell, flavor, appearance) of the meat remain acceptable to many consumers.

Thyme essential oil

Contains Thymol, Carvacrol and Linalool, elements which posess great bactericidal, and anti-oxidant properties.

Oregano essential oil

It has great content of Thymol, Carvacrol and other elements which have excellent  antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties

Rosemary essential oil

Composed of α-Pinene , 1,8-Cineole, Camphene and other elements, which possess great antibacterial, anti-oxidant (and other) properties

Cinnamon essential oil

Has good amount of eugenol, eugenyl acetate, cinnamyl acetate, linalool and other elements which posess great anti-bacterial, and anti-oxidant properties

Citrus essential oil

Essential oils, particularly of Citrus limon (Lemon), and Citrus aurantifolia (Lime) posess great bactericidal and anti-oxidant properties

Vegetables and Fruit preservation dips

Coming soon…

Edible food wraps

Coming soon….