Use of bacteriophages for biocontrol of pathogens in food and food contact surfaces: a systematic review of the literature

Pathogens adhering to food and food-contact surfaces cause high number of foodborne outbreaks worldwide. Their persistent nature and resistance to conventional sanitation methods pose a threat to the food industry and raise food safety issues. Bacteriophages have increasingly emerged as a possible green technology offering host-specific, and natural ability to target and eliminate pathogens from food and food production settings.

The aim of this systematic review was to collate the available scientific information on (a) the efficacy of bacteriophages against pathogens in food and food contact-surfaces, and (b) their stability under diverse processing conditions. An extensive literature search was carried out using three electronic databases: Scopus, Web of Science and Medline. Forty-nine (49) studies focusing on the reduction of pathogenic bacteria across various food and food-contact surfaces were finally included in this review.

Despite some differing results and diverse experimental conditions applied, the overall analysis of the literature confirmed the efficacy of bacteriophages as biocontrol agents in a broad range of food and food surfaces. The findings showed evidence of bacterial reduction against different target pathogens as well as stability under different environmental conditions including pH and temperature fluctuations normally encountered in food processing environments.