| Summary: |
Biofilms formed by foodborne pathogens that occur in and on dairy industry equipment have become a major public health issue and a significant financial
concern. This is due to their potential to contaminate food products and to the higher resistance of bacterial biofilms to cleaning and disinfection compared to bacteria in their planktonic form. Additionally, problems of removing allergens from dairy contact surfaces and cross-contamination of different products are increasing in the food market sector, leading to expensive food recalls and causing life-threatening allergic reactions. Therefore, the development of new
antifouling strategies focused on preventing bacterial colonization, allergen retention and biofilm formation is very promising for the industrial sector.
BacAllFree aims to develop tailor-made antifouling, non-toxic surfaces inspired by the self-cleaning structures of plant surfaces to reduce bacteria and allergen deposition on surfaces and facilitate the removal of organic deposits formed in critical zones of dairy processing facilities where pathogenic biofilms are an issue. This approach will guarantee safer and higher quality products to consumers while minimizing cleaning downtimes, thus resulting in substantial cost benefits to food processors. Moreover, the consumption of hazardous chemicals will be dramatically reduced by minimizing cleaning and disinfection processes, hence decreasing the use of energy and water, and the disposal of cleaning solutions into the environment. These objectives are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the European Green Deal and establish a solid basis for both scientific and innovation development.
Although in the last years there has been increasing evidence of how bacteria sense a surface, the way the surface topography and physicochemistry influence bacterial attachment and subsequent biofilm formation are not fully explained. Moreover, the formation of conditioning fil  |
Summary
Biofilms formed by foodborne pathogens that occur in and on dairy industry equipment have become a major public health issue and a significant financial
concern. This is due to their potential to contaminate food products and to the higher resistance of bacterial biofilms to cleaning and disinfection compared to bacteria in their planktonic form. Additionally, problems of removing allergens from dairy contact surfaces and cross-contamination of different products are increasing in the food market sector, leading to expensive food recalls and causing life-threatening allergic reactions. Therefore, the development of new
antifouling strategies focused on preventing bacterial colonization, allergen retention and biofilm formation is very promising for the industrial sector.
BacAllFree aims to develop tailor-made antifouling, non-toxic surfaces inspired by the self-cleaning structures of plant surfaces to reduce bacteria and allergen deposition on surfaces and facilitate the removal of organic deposits formed in critical zones of dairy processing facilities where pathogenic biofilms are an issue. This approach will guarantee safer and higher quality products to consumers while minimizing cleaning downtimes, thus resulting in substantial cost benefits to food processors. Moreover, the consumption of hazardous chemicals will be dramatically reduced by minimizing cleaning and disinfection processes, hence decreasing the use of energy and water, and the disposal of cleaning solutions into the environment. These objectives are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the European Green Deal and establish a solid basis for both scientific and innovation development.
Although in the last years there has been increasing evidence of how bacteria sense a surface, the way the surface topography and physicochemistry influence bacterial attachment and subsequent biofilm formation are not fully explained. Moreover, the formation of conditioning films, especially those based on allergenic materials such as milk proteins, and their impact on bacteria-surface interactions and further cleaning have scarcely been studied, being a growing concern for dairy manufacturers. The food processing environment is far from being ideal and surfaces are typically colonized by a dynamicconsortium of microorganisms and organic material that interact with each other. For that reason, the self-cleaning efficacy of the developed surfaces will be validated in presence of different conditioning agents, bacterial strains relevant to foodborne diseases (Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) in single- and multispecies cultures, and novel cleaning regimes. Surfaces and biofilms will be assessed by state-of-the-art and robust techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical profilometry (OP), confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), flow cytometry (FC), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), that together provide a better understanding of the bacteria-surface, allergen-surface and bacteria-bacteria interactions. Such a holistic approach constitutes a step forward towards the industrial application of biomimetic surfaces to enhance food safety. |