The growing intention to replace chemical food preservatives with plant-based antimicrobials that pose lower risks to human health has produced numerous studies describing the bactericidal properties of biopreservatives such as essential oils (EOs) in a variety of products, including cheese. This study aimed to perform a meta-analysis of literature data that could summarize the inactivation of Escherichia coli in cheese achieved by added EOs; and compare its inhibitory effectiveness by application method, antimicrobial concentration, and specific antimicrobials. After a systematic review, 362 observations on log reduction data and study characteristics were extracted from 16 studies. The meta-regression model suggested that pathogenic E. coli is more resistant to EO action than the non-pathogenic type (p < 0.0001), although in both cases the higher the EO dose, the greater the mean log reduction achieved (p < 0.0001). It also showed that, among the factual application methods, EOs’ incorporation in films render a steadier inactivation (p < 0.0001) than when directly applied to milk or smeared on cheese surface. Lemon balm, sage, shallot, and anise EOs showed the best inhibitory outcomes against the pathogen. The model also revealed the inadequacy of inoculating antimicrobials in cheese purposely grated for performing challenge studies, as this non-realistic application overestimates (p < 0.0001) the inhibitory effects of EOs.

中文翻译：

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Meta回归模型描述了精油对奶酪中大肠杆菌失活的影响。

越来越多的意向以对人类健康构成较低风险的植物性抗菌剂替代化学食品防腐剂，这产生了众多研究，描述了生物防腐剂（例如香精油）在多种产品（包括奶酪）中的杀菌特性。这项研究的目的是对文献数据进行荟萃分析，以总结通过添加EOs可以使奶酪中的大肠杆菌失活。并通过应用方法，抗菌剂浓度和特定抗菌剂比较其抑制效果。经过系统的审查后，从16项研究中提取了362项对数减少数据和研究特征的观察结果。元回归模型表明，致病性大肠杆菌与非致病类型相比，它对EO作用的抵抗力更强（p <0.0001），尽管在两种情况下EO剂量越高，平均对数减少幅度越大（p <0.0001）。它也表明，在实际的施用方法中，与直接施用到牛奶或涂抹在奶酪表面上相比，在薄膜中掺入EOs的失活更稳定（p <0.0001）。柠檬香脂，鼠尾草，葱和茴香EOs对病原体表现出最佳的抑制效果。该模型还揭示了故意磨碎的奶酪中接种抗菌剂不足以进行挑战研究，因为这种不切实际的应用高估了（p <0.0001）EOs的抑制作用。