Application of ε-poly-L-lysine in Improving Food Quality and Safety

Each year, economic losses in the food industry due to spoilage of grain, aquatic products and fruit are huge. People now express more concern about food safety and nutrition, therefore, the need for green preservatives is also growing. Epsilon-poly-L-lysine (ε-PL), a cationic polyamino acid with 25–35 L-lysine residues, possesses broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, biodegradable properties, resistance to high temperature, and non-toxicity and can dissolve in water. So, it has been extensively applied in the field of preservatives for foodstuffs, agriculture and biomedicine. Thus, the chapter mainly focuses on the recent research on microbial synthesis, production enhancement, and antimicrobial mechanism, as well as improving food safety, its utilization in food packaging materials and agriculture of εPL .