Investigating the Antimicrobial Medicinal Effects

Today food safety is an important public health topic of the society. It is estimated that about 30% of people in industrialized countries suffer from foodborne diseases. According to the report of the World Health Organization 9 million people in the world die every year due to poisoning caused by consuming contaminated food and water. Diseases resulting from the consumption of food contaminated with pathogenic bacteria are of great importance in public health and cause financial and human losses to societies every year. For example in Canada the cost of treating diseases caused by consuming meat contaminated with food pathogens is more than 500 million dollars per year. Since consumers are not sure about the safety of foods that contain synthetic preservatives they tend to consume natural foods that use natural products as preservatives instead of chemical preservatives. One of the ways to produce healthy food is to use materials with natural structure. Using essential oils and plant extracts as antibacterial and antifungal additives is one of these methods.