Developing novel phage-based techniques for removing spoilage bacteria from meat products

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When unsealed, vacuum-packed (VP) meat can have an unpleasant odour, produced by the activity of spoilage bacteria on the surface of the meat. These bacteria are not pathogenic, and harmless when cooked, butconsumers may assume the meat is spoiled and discard the product, leading to excess food waste and a negative impact on the brand due to the association with poor quality meat.The Clokie laboratory has previously linked species of lactic acid bacteria to meat spoilage in the UK; these are standard contaminants of the surface ofmeat and with restrictions on meat processing procedures, chemical cleaning of the meat before packaging is not a viable option.Bacteriophages are seen as suitable for removing malodorous bacteria and identified some phages for spoilage bacteria. In addition, the US Food and Drug Administration has classified phages as being safe; several commercial phage products for food processing are already available on the market. Due to their 'safe status', phages could be used on meat products to reduce the production of bad odours.Previous work has found that successful killing of bacteria by phages alters the microbiome composition, in turn reducing the abundance of volatile compounds associated with off odours. It has also been shown that phage interact differently with bacteria under different Oxygen concentrations.The new project will follow on from previous work. In addition to gaining valuable industrial experience by working alongside a major UK meat producer, we aim to undertake the following objectives:Build a library of phages that infect various odour producing bacteriaAssess the efficacy of phages under VP/cold storage conditionsCombine phages to design a cocktail that efficiently kills target bacteriaUse transcriptomic and metabolomic approaches to identify phage metabolomesDemonstrate that the application of the phage cocktail reduces the production of volatile compounds associated with off-odours