Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: van Beilen JW
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4178694 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
van Beilen J W A JW Teixeira de Mattos M J MJ Hellingwerf K J KJ Brul S S
Applied and environmental microbiology 20140718 19
Sorbic acid and acetic acid are among the weak organic acid preservatives most commonly used to improve the microbiological stability of foods. They have similar pKa values, but sorbic acid is a far more potent preservative. Weak organic acids are most effective at low pH. Under these circumstances, they are assumed to diffuse across the membrane as neutral undissociated acids. We show here that the level of initial intracellular acidification depends on the concentration of undissociated acid a ...[more]