Abstract: Due to their high contents of protein, fat, and carbohydrate, foods are extremely susceptible to be contaminated by pathogenic or spoilage microorganisms during production, processing, storage and transportation, which can lead to the production of bio-toxins or food spoilage and loss. Many studies indicate that antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have good antibacterial activity against pathogenic or spoilage microorganisms. Some AMPs possess bioactivities such as antioxidant and free radical scavenging effects. The efficacy of AMPs as a food preservative can be enhanced by the synergistic action of their antibacterial and antioxidant activity. Hence, AMPs, as novel biological antimicrobial preservatives, have a promising prospect in the field of food preservation. First, this review systematically elucidates the antibacterial mechanism of AMPs from the perspectives of cytoplasmic membrane damage and non-cytoplasmic membrane damage, and then provides a detailed overview of the application of AMPs in the preservation of various types of food. Finally, the problems existing in this field are discussed and possible solutions for these problems are proposed, with the aim of providing theoretical and practical guidance for the application of AMPs in food preservation.

Key words: antimicrobial peptides; antibacterial mechanism; membrane-damaging mechanism; non-membrane-damaging mechanism; food preservation