http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/08/1 ... latestnewsResearchers at the University of Minnesota reported the discovery of bisin -- a naturally-occurring compound produced by some types of bacteria.
The agent reduces the growth of bacteria including E. coli, salmonella and listeria and could lead to sandwiches that stay fresh for more than a year, The (London) Sunday Times reported.
The discovery also means that opened wine and products such as fresh salad dressing could last much longer -- in some cases for as long as several years.
It could also lead to a reduction in the amount of food wasted and thrown away each year.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/08/1 ... z1V2cp9VrZ
Natural bacteria killer???
Moderators: Rosie, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Natural bacteria killer???
Notice that even though it's a toxin produced by bacteria, it's "natural", so "naturally", it's perfectly OK. 
Thanks - that's an interesting discovery. Somehow, though, the thought of eating sandwiches that have been lying around for a year doesn't particularly appeal to me. That'll make life a lot easier for the food service folks, though.
Tex
Thanks - that's an interesting discovery. Somehow, though, the thought of eating sandwiches that have been lying around for a year doesn't particularly appeal to me.
That'll make life a lot easier for the food service folks, though.Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
It's a little "night of the living dead" - the idea that being able to eat zombie/undead food is cheerful news.
I had the same thought, Tex - mostly when we say "toxin!!!" from "bacteria!!" people run screaming from the movie theater. Often when I'm teaching gardening or counseling vigorously against placing a plant where it desperately doesn't want to be, someone will ask.. "but will it die?" And I shoot back "in plants, as in horror movies, 'undead' is what we want to be looking at."
And speaking of natural (this also comes up in the garden context) "natural is not synonymous with benign." (Likewise, 'organic' - I'm guessing you could get fair-trade, sustainably harvested, organic curare, but it would still kill you.)
Sorry, got sidetracked... I think it's kind of fascinating. Getting a bacterial agent to mess with other bacteria in some medical context might truly help with some of the horrible consequences of salmonella, listeria & E. coli in patients (though no doubt unintended consequences in that context might also be concerning). Since those three killer bugs are all introduced regularly in the food supply, the idea that we should be training bacteria *not* to be killed off by this new wondrous bisin stuff, by using it to turn foods (other than twinkies) into styrofoam, seems... a little 'undead' as an idea!
Sara
I had the same thought, Tex - mostly when we say "toxin!!!" from "bacteria!!" people run screaming from the movie theater. Often when I'm teaching gardening or counseling vigorously against placing a plant where it desperately doesn't want to be, someone will ask.. "but will it die?" And I shoot back "in plants, as in horror movies, 'undead' is what we want to be looking at."
And speaking of natural (this also comes up in the garden context) "natural is not synonymous with benign." (Likewise, 'organic' - I'm guessing you could get fair-trade, sustainably harvested, organic curare, but it would still kill you.)
Sorry, got sidetracked... I think it's kind of fascinating. Getting a bacterial agent to mess with other bacteria in some medical context might truly help with some of the horrible consequences of salmonella, listeria & E. coli in patients (though no doubt unintended consequences in that context might also be concerning). Since those three killer bugs are all introduced regularly in the food supply, the idea that we should be training bacteria *not* to be killed off by this new wondrous bisin stuff, by using it to turn foods (other than twinkies) into styrofoam, seems... a little 'undead' as an idea!
Sara
It's a little "night of the living dead" - the idea that being able to eat zombie/undead food is cheerful news.
I had the same thought, Tex - mostly when we say "toxin!!!" from "bacteria!!" people run screaming from the movie theater. Often when I'm teaching gardening or counseling vigorously against placing a plant where it desperately doesn't want to be, someone will ask.. "but will it die?" And I shoot back "in plants, as in horror movies, 'undead' is what we want to be looking at."
And speaking of natural (this also comes up in the garden context) "natural is not synonymous with benign." (Likewise, 'organic' - I'm guessing you could get fair-trade, sustainably harvested, organic curare, but it would still kill you.)
Sorry, got sidetracked... I think it's kind of fascinating. Getting a bacterial agent to mess with other bacteria in some medical context might truly help with some of the horrible consequences of salmonella, listeria & E. coli in patients (though no doubt the unintended consequences might also be concerning). Since those three killer bugs occur all-too-often in the food supply, the idea that we should be training bacteria *not* to be killed off by this new wondrous bisin stuff, by using it to turn foods (other than twinkies) into styrofoam, seems... a little 'undead' as an idea!
Sara
I had the same thought, Tex - mostly when we say "toxin!!!" from "bacteria!!" people run screaming from the movie theater. Often when I'm teaching gardening or counseling vigorously against placing a plant where it desperately doesn't want to be, someone will ask.. "but will it die?" And I shoot back "in plants, as in horror movies, 'undead' is what we want to be looking at."
And speaking of natural (this also comes up in the garden context) "natural is not synonymous with benign." (Likewise, 'organic' - I'm guessing you could get fair-trade, sustainably harvested, organic curare, but it would still kill you.)
Sorry, got sidetracked... I think it's kind of fascinating. Getting a bacterial agent to mess with other bacteria in some medical context might truly help with some of the horrible consequences of salmonella, listeria & E. coli in patients (though no doubt the unintended consequences might also be concerning). Since those three killer bugs occur all-too-often in the food supply, the idea that we should be training bacteria *not* to be killed off by this new wondrous bisin stuff, by using it to turn foods (other than twinkies) into styrofoam, seems... a little 'undead' as an idea!
Sara
It will be interesting to see if industry can sell the idea to consumers. Bacillus thuringiensis, (commonly known as 'Bt'), is a natural insecticidal bacterium, that has been marketed worldwide for decades, for control of many important plant pests, (mostly caterpillars), but when Monsanto recently incorporated the trait into corn seed, as a GMO, consumers world-wide screamed bloody murder, while farmers breathed a sigh of relief. 
Tex
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Tex,
I use Bt in mosquito dunks (not a lot - the 'acreage' here is not so great). (I've had neighbors who were trying to sling-shot them into backyards that were long uncared for... which had become mosquito farms of spackle buckets or unused appliances.) In general, once I heard the head gardener at Versailles had stopped using all kinds of chemicals... I started believing that the pressures on him to make sure the gardens were ornamental were a little heavier than they were on me, and started encouraging neighbors and clients to relax and tolerate a little 'bug browse' - since those same neighbors and clients want butterflies, they may as well learn to let the caterpillars be.
Keywords there, of course are - "a little" bug browse, and "ornamental." No one starves (or loses the farm) when that doesn't go as planned.
I feel for farmers, who are pressed between the all-too-rare 'sigh of relief' and 'consumer panic.' There's a non-fanciful meaning in the phrase "hard row to hoe." We urbanites think it's just sooo delightful to grow a wee bit of what we eat... And it is, I think so, too. It may be the only hope to get at least some people clued up that food comes from processes outside factories.
Seriously - if this bacterial toxin can mess with those food-borne illnesses... maybe someone should look into using it to prevent or treat foodborne illnesses, instead of making sure opened wine and fresh salad dressing can last longer. (Note to self - make less fresh salad dressing? Drink all the wine? Put the wine in the fridge? Pour it into smaller bottles so there's less air in there? All that sounds better and easier than 'add a novel food additive that some bacteria just created with its toxic superpowers.)
Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria sicken (and kill) people all the time. That seems more important than salad dressing.
While I'm quibbling...
I use Bt in mosquito dunks (not a lot - the 'acreage' here is not so great). (I've had neighbors who were trying to sling-shot them into backyards that were long uncared for... which had become mosquito farms of spackle buckets or unused appliances.) In general, once I heard the head gardener at Versailles had stopped using all kinds of chemicals... I started believing that the pressures on him to make sure the gardens were ornamental were a little heavier than they were on me, and started encouraging neighbors and clients to relax and tolerate a little 'bug browse' - since those same neighbors and clients want butterflies, they may as well learn to let the caterpillars be.
Keywords there, of course are - "a little" bug browse, and "ornamental." No one starves (or loses the farm) when that doesn't go as planned.
I feel for farmers, who are pressed between the all-too-rare 'sigh of relief' and 'consumer panic.' There's a non-fanciful meaning in the phrase "hard row to hoe." We urbanites think it's just sooo delightful to grow a wee bit of what we eat... And it is, I think so, too. It may be the only hope to get at least some people clued up that food comes from processes outside factories.
Seriously - if this bacterial toxin can mess with those food-borne illnesses... maybe someone should look into using it to prevent or treat foodborne illnesses, instead of making sure opened wine and fresh salad dressing can last longer. (Note to self - make less fresh salad dressing? Drink all the wine? Put the wine in the fridge? Pour it into smaller bottles so there's less air in there? All that sounds better and easier than 'add a novel food additive that some bacteria just created with its toxic superpowers.)
Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria sicken (and kill) people all the time. That seems more important than salad dressing.
While I'm quibbling...
It sounds to me as though processed cheese is that's sterile is not 'edible' for decades... more like it won't change for decades, so though it won't kill you - not a food. (Same could perhaps be said for styrofoam? and twinkies.)Because bisin is chemically related to nisin, which is used to keep processed cheese sterile and edible for decades, it does not need to be pharmaceutically tested and could be on the market within a year.
Sara,
To expand on what you said about using this new discovery to treat disease, rather than to extend the shelf life of products in the supermarket, or in the refrigerator - here's the part that I find interesting: Practically everyone knows that we use antibiotics too freely, already, for non-essential purposes, and the unintended result of the practice obviously encourages the propagation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can lead to serious problems, somewhere down the road. And yet, this is exactly what the researchers are promoting, even before the concept is developed to a usable technology. Put it in everything that's perishable, because it's a "natural" product, and therefore "safe".
But is it? By definition, the term "antibiotic" was coined to describe any substance produced by a microorganism, that is antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms. If there are no controls on bisin, it will soon be ubiquitous, in perishable foods, IMO. I'm not sure that it's a good idea to add an antibiotic to all those foods, but maybe I'm just a worry wart.
Love,
Tex
To expand on what you said about using this new discovery to treat disease, rather than to extend the shelf life of products in the supermarket, or in the refrigerator - here's the part that I find interesting: Practically everyone knows that we use antibiotics too freely, already, for non-essential purposes, and the unintended result of the practice obviously encourages the propagation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can lead to serious problems, somewhere down the road. And yet, this is exactly what the researchers are promoting, even before the concept is developed to a usable technology. Put it in everything that's perishable, because it's a "natural" product, and therefore "safe".
But is it? By definition, the term "antibiotic" was coined to describe any substance produced by a microorganism, that is antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms. If there are no controls on bisin, it will soon be ubiquitous, in perishable foods, IMO. I'm not sure that it's a good idea to add an antibiotic to all those foods, but maybe I'm just a worry wart.
Love,
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.