Determination of antimicrobial activity. Thyme EO was tested on 7 common food-related bacteria and fungus: Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), Salmonella typhimurium (ATCC 14028), Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), Klebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC 13882), Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 29212) and Candida albicans (ATCC 10231), using the disk diffusion method as previously described [10]. Briefly, a suspension of the tested microorganism (10^6 cells/mL-1) was spread on the solid media plates (Mueller-Hinton agar for bacteria and Sabouraud cloramphenicol agar for fungi). The paper discs (Whatman No 1 filter paper - 6 mm diameter) were impregnated with 5, 10, 15 and 20µL EO and placed on the inoculated agar. The plates inoculated with bacterial strains were incubated for 24 h at 37°C and 48 h at 30°C for fungi, respectively. As positive controls, ciprofloxacin (30 µg/disk) and cephalexin (10 µg/disk) were used for bacterial strains and fluconazole (10 µg/disk) for fungi. After incubation, the diameter of the zone of inhibition was measured in millimeters. Each test was performed in triplicate on at least three separate experiments.