Consumer demand for minimally processed foods and the growing acceptance of functional microbial agents in both food and health underscores a new wave in food safety approaches. My research on multi-hurdled biocontrol strategies exemplifies this new wave approach by addressing microbiological limitations of High-Pressure Processing (HPP) through biopreservation and investigating bacteriophage biotechnology to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).This was first explored through the selective survival of protective cultures under HPP conditions, which is critical for biopreservation applications. The indiscriminatory inactivation of vegetative cells in HPP prevents the application of protective cultures in HPP-treated foods. Through the use of freeze-drying and encapsulation techniques, we were able to overcome this limitation, laying the groundwork for these two preservation techniques to be used in combination. Specifically, our results revealed that freeze-dried protective cultures sustained HPP treatment (600 MPa, 5˚C, 3 min) with an initial count of 10.13 log CFU/mL. Encapsulation in cocoa butter, which was optimized using a response surface model, allowed immersion in liquid for up to 24 hours before HPP treatment, maintaining high cell counts (> 8 log CFU) and acidification activity post-treatment. In the second aspect, we tackled antimicrobial resistance through a novel colicinogenic-phage system, employing a multi-hurdle approach to reduce selective pressure from antimicrobials. Using the T7Selects-415b kit, we integrated the bacteriocidal effects of E. coli bacteriocins within a synthetic T7 phage, thereby introducing a secondary colicin-based hurdle to the T7 lytic cycle. Our findings demonstrated the efficacy of this multi-hurdled treatment in suppressing the outgrowth of T7-resistant sub-populations under both planktonic and structured conditions using a challenge matrix design. Notably, the combination of T7-E1 and T7-M into a triple-hurdle treatment effectively suppressed mixed planktonic populations of 50% resistance cell concentrations. Applying the challenge matrix design on agar plates as a simplified model for structured habitats provided insights into the relationship between bacterial lawn density and phage effectiveness. At a higher initial lawn density, the colicin-phage treatments were able to form full plaque in a 50% resistant-mixed population. However, when the lawn density was reduced 10-fold, the multi-hurdle treatments formed partial plaques, emphasizing the significance of bacterial population density in structured environments. Using a modified fluctuation assay, our analysis of persister formation uncovered unexpected complexities, revealing that, depending on the colicin, the colicin-phage can increase or decrease persister formation relative to the wild-type treatment. Acknowledging the role of science communication in AMR stewardship, I have developed an eLearning module based on my research, aiming to contribute to broader efforts in raising awareness and understanding of AMR. Overall, this work presents multi-hurdle biocontrol and transdisciplinary strategies to address the complexities of food safety while embracing this new wave approach to food microbiology.