This book covers various antimicrobials as food preservatives, such as metabolites, natural products, essential oils. There are chapters that focus on the applicability and prospective studies of essential oils, edible biofilms, biodegradable antimicrobials, and nanostructured lipid carriers in the food sector.

Naga Raju Maddela received his M.Sc. (1996-1998) and Ph.D. (2012) in Microbiology from Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapuramu, India. During his doctoral program in the area of Environmental Microbiology, he investigated the effects of industrial effluents/insecticides on soil microorganisms and their biological activities and he is working as Faculty in Microbiology since 1998, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students. He worked on Prometeo Investigator (fellowship received from SENESCYT) at Universidad Estatal Amazónica, Ecuador during 2013-15, received "Postdoctoral Fellowship" (2016-2018) from Sun Yat-sen University, China. He also received external funding from "China Postdoctoral Science Foundation" in 2017, internal funding from "Universidad Técnica de Manabí" in 2020. He participated in national / international conferences, and presented research data in China, Cuba, Ecuador, India and Singapore. Currently, he is working as a Full Professor at the Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Técnica de Manabí, Portoviejo, Ecuador. He has been actively publishing scientific articles, books (authored and edited) and chapters since 2007. As of now, he published 80 articles, 15 books and 50 book chapters.

Gusdanis Alberto Campos García received his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry (2005) and Ph.D in Chemistry (2012) from Universidad del Zulia, Venezuela. He served as a Full-time Associate Professor of the Academic Unit of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Experimental Sciences, Universidad del Zulia, Venezuela (2014-2016). Also, he worked as Research and Development Coordinator at Simsa oil company in Venezuela (2013-2016). Since 2016, he is working as a Principal professor of Laboratory Instrumentation and Toxicology of the Clinical Laboratory course, Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS), Universidad Técnica de Manabí (UTM), Portoviejo, Ecuador. At UTM, he is also serving as a Vice-Dean of Research and Postgraduate of the faculty of Health Sciences from 2017 to present. He is a Member of the Clinical Laboratory Sciences research group at UTM and supervising students of master's program in biomedicine. He is an alternate member of the Honorable University Council of UTM for the period 2023-2025.

Jaskiran Kaur is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the department of Biotechnology, DAV University, Sarmastpur, Jalandhar, Punjab- 144012, India. She has more than three years of teaching and research experience. She has received her MSc in Biotechnology from Punjab University, Chandigarh in 2010; and MPhil and PhD in Environmental Science and Technology from Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, India in 2012 and 2019, respectively. Her area of research interest is wastewater management and treatment, membrane bioreactor, membrane fouling mitigation, quorum quenching, biofuels and bioremediation. She has published more than 25 research papers in peer-reviewed national and international research journals, conference proceedings and chapters in books. She is serving as a Brand ambassador in The Bentham Science Publisher. In addition, she organized several workshops and faculty development programs till date. She has also participated in various training programs, faculty development programs, seminars and presented her work in more than 10 National, International conferences and seminars as well.

Section 1: FOOD INGREDIENTS AS ANTIMICROBIALS. Chapter 1. Antimicrobial activity of natural metabolites. Chapter 2. Natural Antimicrobials, Their Sources and Food Safety. Chapter 3. Natural Antimicrobials in Food Packaging and Preservation. Chapter 4. Antimicrobial activity of essential oils: Food aplication and determination methods. Chapter 5. Antimicrobial Agents in Food Preservation. Chapter 6. Antimicrobial Packaging to Preserve Food Quality and Food Self Life. Chapter 7. Antimicrobial nanomaterials in the food industry. Chapter 8. Production of L-arginine by fermentation: its applications as food ingredients and antimicrobials. Chapter 9. Role of Antibacterial Polyphenols (PPS) in Food Preservative Applications and correlated to crystals structures as reference tool. Chatper 10. Bioprospective Value of Phaeophyceae : Antimicrobial Potential, Bioactive Components and its Health Promoting Perspectives. Chapter 11. Antimicrobial activity and potential of the ingredients of horchata - a traditional Southern Ecuadorian Highlands herbal drink. Section 2: APPLICATIONS OF FOOD INGREDIENTS - RECENT ADVANCES. Chapter 12. Antimicrobial potentiality of Endophytes in agriculture, food-nutrition, and packaging. Chapter 13. Microencapsulation of essential oils for food preservation: Methods, Mechanisms and Applications. Chapter 14. Antimicrobial edible biofilms for food packaging - Nano-based technologies. Chapter 15. Spray drying as a tool for the microencapsulation of essential oils as natural food additives. Chapter 16. Emerging Trends in Antimicrobial Use for Sustainable Food Preservation. Chapter 17. Biodegradable Antimicrobials in Food Packaging. Chapter 18. Nanostructured Lipid Carriers (NLCs) for the Aqueous-Based Food Preservation. Chapter 19. Scientific Research on Antimicrobials: Bibliometric Assessment of Contributions in WOS (2000-2021).