A Scalable and Rechargeable Antimicrobial Coating for Food Equipment

We propose to develop effective robust rechargeable and economic antimicrobial coatings tofight cross-contamination in food manufacturing and improve food safety. The severeconsequences of microbiological contamination (e.g. foodborne illnesses food recalls branddamage and economic losses) demand food industry to re-examine the current food safetycontrol strategies and introduce novel technologies for controlling the microbial cross- contamination. Persistent pathogens have become a big threat to food industry especially onnon-food-contact surfaces. Even the bacteria-killing procedures cannot fully eliminate thecontamination from these surfaces with the ready-to-eat foods. One potential solution is tomodify non-food-contact surfaces with anti-microbial coatings to control cross-contamination.We will focus on achieving the durability and scalability of the antimicrobial coating systemsthrough the combination of advanced coating chemistry and formulation. There are foursupporting objectives: 1) Obtain coating thickness and adhesion that can survive 3 months ofsanitation scrubbing. 2) Prove that the coating is compatible and non-reactive to normalsanitation chemicals. 3) Validate that the coating is effective against multiple listeria persistentstrains. 4) Validate that the coating prevents biofilms forming for up to 3 months in-service. Ifsuccessful the new coating system will offer a practical and sustainable solution to controlfoodborne contaminants and greatly enhance the food safety.