Evaluation of Antifungal Activity of Antimicrobial Agents on Cheddar Cheese

The antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger of the antimicrobial (AM) agents linalool, carvacrol and thymol incorporated in the coatings of starch-based films was investigated. The activity was initially determined on a solid medium using the modified microatmosphere method and then examined on Cheddar cheese. On the solid media, all the AM films demonstrated a significant inhibitory effect against A. niger growth. The inhibitory effect of the AM films containing 2.38% (w/w) AM agents is reflected by the colony diameters that were 29.3, 25.4 and 21.3mm for linalool, carvacrol and thymol, respectively, at 25 degrees C after 7days incubation compared with the control sample where the colony diameter was 85.3mm. The AM films containing 2.38% (w/w) linalool, carvacrol or thymol reduced the population of A. niger on the surface of Cheddar cheese by 1.8, 2.0 and 2.2logCFU/g, respectively, after 35days of storage at 15 degrees C. The results suggest that starch-based film coated with an AM agent has the potential for being used as a fungicidal packaging system. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.