Food and Cooking

Red Wine-Based Marinades Provide Protection Against E. coli and Salmonella Infection

To read the full article, click here to access The Academic Wino.

Extracts made using red wine or grape skins have been studied often for their antimicrobial characteristics.

Photo By ProjectManhattan (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Photo By ProjectManhattan (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Recently, more work has been done on the subject of red wine extracts and the preservation and protection of meats against both Salmonella and E. coli, two common bacterial contaminants observed in all different types of meats.

Basically, the results of a recent study adds more support to idea that red wine-based extracts may be beneficial for preserving and protecting meats for consumption.

Important findings:

  • Red wine alone treatment in this study did not protect against E. coli or Salmonella.
  • Red wine plus certain plant extracts were somewhat effective against E. coli and Salmonella.
  • Red wine plus certain essential oils were highly effective against E. coli and Salmonella infection.
  • The greatest antimicrobial effects were seen in those red wine treatments containing lemongrass essential oils.

In general, results of this study show that red wine-based extracts may be good for protecting your meats against microbial infections from things like E. coli or Salmonella.  According to this study, the combination of red wine and lemongrass essential oils seemed to perform the best.

Source:

Friedman, M., Henika, P.R., and Levin, C.E. 2015. Antimicrobial activities of red wine-based formulations containing plant extracts against Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica serovar Hadar. Food Control 50: 652-658.