The present invention concerns the field of food preservation. The present invention provides a preservative (antimicrobial) system comprising a cinnamate component and a lactate component. The invention also provides a method of preparing an edible product, said method comprising the step of adding a combination of a cinnamate component and a lactate component. Furthermore, the invention provides a method of manufacturing a fermented edible product, said method comprising fermenting an aqueous substrate using lactic acid bacteria to produce a fermented substrate, and adding a cinnamate component to the fermented substrate to inactivate lactic acid bacteria.
