Food Safety for Health Promotion: Unravelling Spirulina's Antimicrobial Power in Controlling Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus isolated from fresh Tilapia Fillet and AI Verification

Seafood products, including fresh tilapia fish fillets, are prone to rapid quality deterioration due to microbial contamination, which is a concern for food safety and health promotion to the general public. This study focused on experimental investigation and artificial intelligence model verification of the antimicrobial activity of Spirulina platensis (SP) extracts on two common foodborne pathogens, Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) and Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ). The SP extracts were obtained using the freeze-thaw method at concentrations of 0.5%, 1%, and 5% (w/v) and labeled as EA, EB, and EC, respectively. Microbial analysis was conducted from 25 fresh Nile Tilapia fish fillets. Each fresh fish was dissected into four quarters; one for the control and three were for the treatments. Bacterial count was conducted before and after the treatment with the extracts at 1 hour, 24 hours, and 48 hours with storage at 4°C. The antimicrobial activity of the extracts was modeled using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) models. The results showed that the SP extracts exhibited effective antimicrobial activity against E. coli and S. aureus in fresh tilapia fish fillets. The ANN and ANFIS models accurately verified the reduction in microbial count after treatment with the extracts. Notably, EC demonstrated superior antimicrobial activity compared to EB and EA. The findings suggest that SP extracts can serve as a natural preservative technology for food products. It could be used as a strategy for food safety and health promotion to protect the public from pathogenic foodborne bacteria. Future research should focus on exploring the bioactive compounds of SP extracts in various food matrices and in super food and drug discoveries.