•Essential oils are a mixture of bioactive volatile compounds.•Essential oils are potent antimicrobial and antioxidant agents.•Essential oils have the potential to be used as a food preservative.•There are limitations to the use of essential oils as food preservative. Essential oils (EOs) are natural, volatile and aromatic liquids extracted from special plants. EOs are complex mixture of secondary metabolites (terpenes, phenolic compounds, alcohol). EOs possess a wide range of biological activities including antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory ones. Particularly, EOs exhibit pronounced antibacterial and food preservative properties that represent a real potential for the food industry. Numerous EOs have the potential to be used as a food preservative for meat and meat products, vegetables and fruits as well as for dairy products. The main obstacles for using EOs as food preservatives are their safety limits, marked organoleptic effects and possible contamination by chemical products such as pesticides. This review aims to provide an overview of current knowledge about EOs food preservative properties with special emphasis on their antibacterial activities and to support their uses as natural, eco-friendly, safe and easily biodegradable agents for food preservation.