Microbiologist discovers new super-preservative

In one of those freak accidents that sometimes occur in science, where someone is looking at something for one purpose and finds another for it, Dan O'Sullivan has found a use for a byproduct of harmless bacteria commonly found in the human gut; called bisin, it appears to work as a sort of super-preservative for meat, dairy and eggs, allowing them to go unspoiled for perhaps years.

Chemically related to nisin, a preservative already used in cheese, bisin apparently kills E. coli, salmonella and listeria so effectively that foods (not fruits or vegetables though, since different biology is at work in their decomposition) that have been treated with it could, in theory, last almost indefinitely.

Source:

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-microbiologist-super-preservative.html