Feta is the big cheese for fighting the bugs
Scientists have discovered that feta cheese made from raw milk has natural anti-food-poisoning properties.
They were able to isolate bacteria in the raw sheep’s milk from small farms in northern Greece.
“Several of these friendly bacteria naturally produce antibiotics that killed off dangerous food-poisoning bacteria like Listeria, an international conference was told.
NATURAL
Some strains of the bacteria could produce up to three different natural substances to fight different food-poisoning bugs, the conference of Microbiologists in Edinburgh was told.
The unique taste of many local cheeses, especially from Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean is mainly due to the bacteria they contain known as enterococci.
Instead of putting additives and synthetic preservatives in foods, the scientists hope they can harness the properties of the useful bacteria to use them as micro-allies against diseasecausing bacteria like Listeria.
Listeria is one of the most dangerous food poisoning bacteria because it can survive in places and conditions that other bacteria cannot.
It can cause food poisoning or even death in vulnerable people like children and the elderly, and in pregnant women where it commonly triggers miscarriages.
Reseacher Panagiotis Chanos from the University of Lincoln says they hope that the discoveries will lead to ways of fighting foodborne poisonings.
He said their hope was the good bugs in the cheese could colonise in people’s stomachs and fight Listeria from within the body.
- Clodagh Sheehy
