Red Wine Good Against Food Poisoning? Researchers Find Merlots and More Might Help

We already knew a little red wine in moderation could help prevent cardiovascular disease, but now it appears red wine might also help fight food poisoning, according to new research from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Researchers Azlin Mustapha, associate professor of food science, and Atreyee Das, a doctoral student in the food science program, have found that red wine appears to act as a natural anti-microbial in our intestinal tract while leaving untouched the helpful probiotic bacteria needed for digestion. The wines that exhibit those properties most strongly: Cabernet, Zinfandel and Merlot.

Red grape juice produced similar results, the researchers found. On the other hand, no white wines seemed to show the same anti-microbial action.

Mustapha said the most promising finding so far involves red wine’s ability to fight Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that can be transmitted by food and water, and is blamed for stomach ulcers, gastritis, duodenitis and, possibly, cancer.

“Our study is a little different than those previously reported in the media,” Mustapha said. “Those studies promote moderate red wine consumption for cardiovascular diseases. We went a step farther and asked, “If red wine is already good for cardiovascular diseases, what about food-borne pathogens? If you get a food-borne illness and drink red wine, will that help decrease the symptoms a little bit?” This study showed that the four probiotics tested weren’t inhibited by red wines; the pathogens were.”

The researchers recently presented their findings at the Institute of Food Technologists’ annual conference in Chicago.

Mustapha and Das studied how three properties of red wine — ethanol, pH levels and reseveratrol, a phytochemical found in the skin of grapes — affected the pathogens that cause food-borne illnesses. In addition to Helicobacter pylori, the pathogens subjected to tests included E. coli, Salmonella Typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes.

“It’s not just ethanol in the red wine that is inhibitory toward food-borne pathogens, but other factors which include the pH of the wine – because wines are a little acidic, and possibly the phytochemicals may have an effect,” Mustapha said. “We hypothesize that these phytochemicals, reseveratrol being the main one, also play a role not just as antioxidants but also may have some inhibitions against food-borne pathogens. Now, we’re concentrating mainly on the reseveratrol effects on these pathogens.”