US Patent 7323203 Process for producing pickles, and antimicrobial composition

The process for producing pickles of the invention comprises using an oil-in-water antimicrobial composition that contains allyisothiocyanate as the active ingredient and further contains surfactant and water added thereto, in any stage of producing pickles. The invention provides a process for stably producing pickles of good quality while taking suitable measures for surely suppressing the growth of microbes in producing pickles in a simplified manner. The antimicrobial composition of the invention comprises allyl isothiocyanate and a beta acids-containing hop extract as the active ingredients. This is useful as a food freshness-keeping agent free from all the problems with conventional AIT and hop extract each other.