Postbiotics represent a promising strategy for reconciling increasing consumer demand for clean-label foods with the need to maintain high microbiological safety standards. The present review analyzed the applications of postbiotics in meat products, other food matrices and bioactive packaging, with particular emphasis on their production methods, compositional analysis and antimicrobial properties. Available evidence indicates that postbiotics offer important technological advantages over live probiotics, including enhanced stability during processing and storage and the absence of viable cells, which facilitates their integration into established food quality and safety control systems. The reviewed studies show that postbiotics produced mainly via fermentation with selected lactic acid bacteria and subsequently stabilized, most often by freeze-drying, exhibit pronounced antimicrobial activity in diverse food matrices, particularly meat and dairy products. Their ability to inhibit the growth of major foodborne pathogens, such as Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Salmonella spp., highlights their potential as effective biopreservatives contributing to shelf-life extension and improved microbiological safety. From an industrial perspective, postbiotics can be implemented within the framework of hurdle technology and incorporated into active packaging systems and edible coatings. The wider use of postbiotics in industry remains limited by regulatory uncertainty and methodological diversity. Key challenges include inconsistent taxonomic/strain reporting, divergent methods of inactivation and final processing (which alter bioactive profiles), lack of standardized composition and potency testing, and limited food matrix validation and toxicological data. To eliminate these gaps, regulatory definitions and labelling should be harmonized, and guidelines for production and reporting (strain identity, inactivation parameters, preservation method), and targeted safety and shelf-life testing are recommended. These steps are necessary to translate the documented antibacterial and antioxidant properties of postbiotics into industrial applications.

The prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in meat and meat products is a significant public health challenge, largely driven by the excessive and inappropriate use of antimicrobials in animal husbandry. In Poland, a key meat producer in Europe, antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as Campylobacter spp., Staphylococcus spp., Enterococcus spp., Listeria monocytogenes, and Enterobacterales have been detected in meat, posing serious risks to consumers. This review examines the use of antimicrobial agents in meat production and the resulting antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in microorganisms isolated from meat products in Poland. The mechanisms of AMR, genetic factors, and prevalence in Poland are presented. It highlights key factors contributing to AMR, such as antibiotic misuse in livestock farming, and discusses the legal regulations governing veterinary drug residues in food. This review emphasizes the importance of monitoring and enforcement to safeguard public health and calls for further research on AMR in the meat industry. Antimicrobial resistance in meat and meat products in Poland is a huge challenge, requiring stricter antibiotic controls in animal husbandry and improved surveillance systems. Additionally, the impact of husbandry practices on the environment and food requires further research. Future efforts should focus on nationwide monitoring, alternative strategies to reduce antibiotic use, and stronger enforcement to combat antimicrobial resistance and protect public health.

Listeria monocytogenes is a ubiquitous foodborne pathogen whose occurrence in food and food-processing environments raises public-health concerns, particularly when isolates carry antimicrobial-resistance determinants. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is increasingly used to detect resistance genes and to predict phenotypic resistance. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) guidelines, PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched for original articles (2015–2024) that used second- and/or third-generation sequencing to characterize antibiotic resistance in L. monocytogenes from food and food-processing environments. After deduplication and screening, 58 studies were included from an initial 418 records. NGS reliably detected a set of recurrent resistance determinants across diverse sample types and geographies. The fosX locus (intrinsic fosfomycin-related marker) was effectively ubiquitous across studies, while acquired determinants were variably distributed: lin (35/58 studies, 60.34%), norB (33/58, 56.90%), and tetracycline genes overall in 20/58 (34.48%) with tetM as the most common (11/58, 18.97%). Reported concordance between the genotypes and phenotypes for acquired resistance was very high (>99% for most agents), with notable exceptions (e.g., ciprofloxacin and some fosfomycin cases). Common analysis pipelines and databases included ResFinder, CARD, BIGSdb-Lm, ABRicate, and ARIBA; most sequencing used Illumina short reads, with an increasing use of long-read or hybrid approaches. NGS is a powerful surveillance tool for detecting resistance determinants and for source-tracking, but its predictive value depends on integration with phenotypic testing, standardized reporting, and comprehensive, curated databases. Key gaps include inconsistent phenotype reporting, variable database coverage, and limited assessment of gene expression/regulatory effects.