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Evaporation inside Petri plates (ca. 8 mm distance between agar surface and
oil) can generate inhibition zones (Maruzzella and Sicurella 1960),
indicating a gradient and non-uniform air-phase distribution of vapour
compounds. The concentration of compounds in the head-space has also been
reported to be different from the composition of the liquid oil, reflecting
differences in volatility of the compounds (Benjilali et al. 1984). Thus, the
dynamics of the volatile system are very important and conflicting results
between volatile methods and diffusion or dilution methods could be expected.
To make the most appropriate assessments of potential antimicrobials, the
future application should be considered when choosing a screening method. For
active packaging (Nielsen and Rios 2000) and fumigation of storage crops
this would be a volatile screening method, whereas substitutes for synthetic
preservatives like sorbates, propionates and benzoates should be assayed by
dilution methods.
Composition of media, exposure time and environmental factors (temperature,
pH, aW) are important for all test methods. The lack of congruence between
agar media assays and real food studies (Arras and Usai 2001; Ultee and
Smid 2001) emphasizes the role that fat and protein content of the food play
in solubility and chemical reactions with the active compound
(Juven et al. 1994; Smith-Palmer et al. 2001), and encourages the use of
food product analogues instead of standard laboratory media. This study was
performed in a model system for bread, because bread is a staple diet
worldwide that spoils fast when not preserved. In Denmark, rye bread is a very
important bread type. The main spoilers of rye bread are Penicillium
roqueforti, P. corylophilum and Eurotium ssp. (Lund et al. 1996). Also yeasts
e.g. Endomyces fibuliger (Legan and Voysey 1991) and Aspergillus flavus are
commonly found.