Accepted Article Improvement of the antimicrobial activity of lactic acid bacteria in combination with berries/fruits and dairy industry by-products Elena Bartkiene a , Vita Lele a , Vytaute Sakiene a , Paulina Zavistanaviciute a , Modestas Ruzauskas a , Jurga Bernatoniene a , Valdas Jakstas a , Pranas Viskelis b , Daiva Zadeike c , Grazina Juodeikiene c a Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilzes str. 18, LT – 47181, Kaunas, Lithuania b Institute of Horticulture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Kauno str. 30, LT – 54333, Babtai, Kaunas distr., Lithuania c Kaunas University of Technology, Radvilenu rd. 19, LT – 50254, Kaunas, Lithuania Corresponding author: elena.bartkiene@lsmuni.lt (E. Bartkiene) Tel.: +370 37 574565; fax: +370 37 300152 Co-authors: vita.lele@lsmuni.lt (V. Lele); vytaute.sakiene@lsmuni.lt (V. Sakiene); paulina.zavistanaviciute@lsmuni.lt (P. Zavistanaviciute); modestas.ruzauskas@lsmuni.lt (M. Ruzauskas); jurga.bernatoniene@lsmuni.lt (J. Bernatoniene); valdas.jakstas@lsmuni.lt (V. Jakstas); biochem@lsdi.lt (P. Viskelis); daiva.zadeike@ktu.lt (D. Zadeike); grazina.juodeikiene@ktu.lt (G. Juodeikiene). Running head: Antimicrobial coatings from by-products ABSTRACT BACKGROUND. By-products from berries/fruits (B/F) and the dairy industry (DI), are an important environmental issue in many countries. In this study the concept of the improvement of antimicrobial This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/jsfa.9625