Antimicrobial Properties of Magnesium Open Opportunities to Develop Healthier Food Original paper

What was reviewed?

This mini-review summarized evidence that magnesium, when present at higher concentrations than normal growth conditions, can reduce bacterial adhesion and weaken biofilm formation. It connected these effects to real-world control points in food systems, especially dairy processing, where biofilms drive persistent contamination and repeated product loss. It also discussed plausible mechanisms, including changes at the cell surface and shifts in biofilm-regulatory signaling that can make microbes less able to attach and persist.

Who was reviewed?

Because this was a review, it did not enroll patients; it synthesized findings from published laboratory and food-matrix studies across multiple bacteria and model systems. The reviewed organisms included common biofilm formers relevant to food safety and human exposure, such as Bacillus species and other gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria used in adhesion and biofilm experiments. It also reviewed work on magnesium-based interventions, including magnesium salts used in food matrices and magnesium-related materials tested for anti-adhesion effects.

What were the most important findings?

The central finding was that magnesium’s impact is dose- and context-dependent: at higher, millimolar-range concentrations, magnesium often reduces adhesion and lowers biofilm biomass, while lower levels may not produce these anti-biofilm effects. Across the summarized studies, magnesium exposure commonly weakened biofilm formation and, in some models, reduced expression of matrix-related pathways that stabilize the biofilm structure. In milk-based experiments, magnesium supplementation impaired Bacillus biofilm formation and also improved heat-treatment outcomes by decreasing post-pasteurization survival, consistent with magnesium pushing bacteria away from protective, persistent biofilm states. For a microbiome signatures database, the paper does not report community-wide major microbial associations, but it supports a consistent functional signal: higher magnesium availability can reduce persistence traits like adhesion and biofilm formation that enable long-term colonization of surfaces and repeated reseeding of environments.

What are the greatest implications of this review?

This review suggests magnesium can function as a practical anti-adhesion and anti-biofilm tool that complements hygiene and thermal processing rather than replacing them. In dairy settings, magnesium enrichment may lower biofilm resilience and reduce survival through pasteurization, which can cut recurring contamination risk. More broadly, it supports the idea that shifting ionic conditions can change microbial behavior in ways that reduce persistence.