REVIEW ARTICLE published: 28 May 2012 doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2012.00180 Factors influencing biogenic amines accumulation in dairy products Daniel M. Linares, Beatriz del Río,Victor Ladero, Noelia Martínez, María Fernández, María Cruz Martín and Miguel A. Álvarez* Instituto de Productos Lácteos de Asturias, (IPLA – CSIC), Villaviciosa, Spain Edited by: Fermented foods are among the food products more often complained of having caused Giovanna Suzzi, University of Teramo, episodes of biogenic amines (BA) poisoning. Concerning milk-based fermented foods, Italy cheese is the main product likely to contain potentially harmful levels of BA, specially tyra- Reviewed by: Giuseppe Spano, University of mine, histamine, and putrescine. Prompted by the increasing awareness of the risks related Foggia, Italy to dietary uptake of high biogenic amine loads, in this review we report all those elabo- Maria Martuscelli, University of ration and processing technological aspects affecting BA biosynthesis and accumulation Teramo, Italy in dairy foods. Improved knowledge of the factors involved in the synthesis and accumu- *Correspondence: lation of BA should lead to a reduction in their incidence in milk products. Synthesis of Miguel A. Álvarez, Instituto de Productos Lácteos de Asturias, BA is possible only when three conditions converge: (i) availability of the substrate amino Carretera de Infiesto s/n. 33300 acids; (ii) presence of microorganisms with the appropriate catabolic pathway activated; Villaviciosa, Spain. and (iii) environmental conditions favorable to the decarboxylation activity.These conditions e-mail:
[email protected] depend on several factors such as milk treatment (pasteurization), use of starter cultures, NaCl concentration, time, and temperature of ripening and preservation, pH, temperature, or post-ripening technological processes, which will be discussed in this chapter.