Because lactic acid bacteria already preserve foods such as cheese and milk, it makes sense to try and inoculate them into other foods as well. For foods in which lactic acid bacteria inoculation is not suitable, protocols for efficient extraction of antimicrobial compounds are being investigated. Purification of the antimicrobial compounds provides a further protection against unwanted transfer of transformed genes to other strains of bacteria. Simple modifications such as deletion of genetic information or self-cloning have shown to be safe in environmental tests, despite high rates of gene transfer among lactic acid bacteria. Lactic acid bacteria have been shown to be safe and effective.
Research is ongoing to use new strains in new domains.
Besides being less potentially toxic or carcinogenic than current antimicrobial agents, lactic acid bacteria and their byproducts have ben shown to be more effective and flexible in several applications. Ray, B., and M. Daeschel 1992. Food biopreservitives of microbial origin. CRC Press, Inc. Boca Raton, Florida. Ray, B., and M. Daeschel 1992.