Safety, quality, and prolonged shelf life of food products are the three most important aspects of the food industry. To ensure a satisfactory scale, both traditional and modern preservatives are widely used. However, as eating habits have upgraded with a focus on what is popularly termed "a healthy diet," there has been a growing demand for food with natural additives over synthetic ingredients. As a result, there have been major developments in the field of food preservation, which are presented in this book.

The book provides detailed information on the range of natural food preservatives with their applications in different product sectors. It delves into microbiological food spoilage and discusses natural food preservatives as well as natural antioxidants and antimicrobials as food ingredients. It reviews prevalent preservation technologies, the chemistry behind them, and new nonconventional preservatives. It focuses on innovative technologies, including biological antimicrobial systems such as LABs or their metabolites, bacteriophages, and bacteriophage-encoded enzymes. It provides knowledge about preservatives, such as bacteriocins and ε-polylysine, as well as their usage in achieving the right balance of safety, quality, and shelf-life for specific products. The book is a collection of the research and experiences of an international team of experts and is a valuable tool for all those who are related to the advancements and production of safe and healthy foods. It is a significant reference book for professionals who teach food microbiology courses, conduct research and epidemiologic investigations, analyze food samples, and craft food safety policies.

Sourish Bhattacharya is a senior scientist at the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-CSMCRI), Gujarat, India. He completed his BTech in biotechnology from the West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata; MTech in fermentation technology from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai; and PhD from CSIR-CSMCRI, India. He has a strong background in the areas of biochemical engineering and microalgal biotechnology, including microalgal biofuel, biopolymers, and nutraceuticals for therapeutic applications. Dr Bhattacharya has published 22 papers and 11 book chapters and has 3 patents to his credit.

Heba Hassan Abd-El Azim Salama is a professor at the Dairy Science Department, Food Industries and Nutrition Research Institute, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt. She completed her PhD in 2013 in dairy science and technology from the Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Egypt. Prof. Salama has a versatile scientific experience in dairy chemistry, dairy analysis, development of new dairy products, and encapsulation of bioactives in dairy-based nanomaterials. She has published more than 45 articles in national and international journals and was ambassador for Bentham Science Publishers during 2019–2021. She has two patents to her credit, earned in 2017 and 2021.