Hygienic Design in the Food Processing Industry

Bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation are of major concern in food production and processing industry. In 1998 a Danish co-operation programme under the title Centre for Hygienic Design was funded to combine the skills of universities, research institutes and industry to focus on the following goals: • Development of materials with low bioadhesion (defined as resistance towards biofilm formation) - and in this context evaluation of quantitative techniques for examination of bioadhesion • Improvement of surface material hygienic life time by selecting surface materials in combination with cleaning chemicals and cleaning procedures • Optimising design of production equipment • Development of environmentally friendly cleaning procedures for removal of biofilm The partners include food production/processing companies and producers of equipment for the food industry, cleaning chemicals, and rubber materials, and researchers in the fields of physics, material sciences, biotechnology and microbiology.

However, combining forces from different fields and industries to achieve the goals outlined have not been without difficulties, but necessary to develop industrially applicable solutions. Finding materials with low so-called bioadhesion focuses on the development of surfaces where biofilm formation is delayed or reduced.

Studies have been carried out e.g. by modifying stainless steel with different surface finishes, and by the effect of possible antimicrobial coatings like silver. Another approach is to focus on surface material hygienic lifetime. Test of this is made in an industrial test loop run by biotechnology researchers in co-operation with materials producers and a food producer to compare biofilm formation, cleanability and deterioration of different rubber and plastic materials as compared to stainless steel.