Recent developments in antimicrobial and antifouling coatings

Illness as the result of ingesting bacterially contaminated foodstuffs represents a significant annual loss of human quality of life and economic impact globally. Significant research investment has recently been made in developing new materials that can be used to construct food contacting tools and surfaces that might minimize the risk of cross?contamination of bacteria from one food item to another. This is done to mitigate the spread of bacterial contamination and resultant foodborne illness. Internet?based literature search tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Scopus were utilized to investigate publishing trends within the last 10 years related to the development of antimicrobial and antifouling surfaces with potential use in food processing applications. Technologies investigated were categorized into four major groups: antimicrobial agent?releasing coatings, contact?based antimicrobial coatings, superhydrophobic antifouling coatings, and repulsion?based antifouling coatings. The advantages for each group and technical challenges remaining before wide?scale implementation were compared. A diverse array of emerging antimicrobial and antifouling technologies were identified, designed to suit a wide range of food contact applications. Although each poses distinct and promising advantages, significant further research investment will likely be required to reliably produce effective materials economically and safely enough to equip large?scale operations such as farms, food processing facilities, and kitchens. Index1 - Introduction2 - Bacterial transport to and interactions with food contact surfaces3 - Synopsis of coating strategies for reducing and preventing bacterial contamination fo food contact surfaces4 - Release-based antimicrobial coatings4.1 - Silver nanoparticles and ions4.2 - Copper, zinc, and their derivatives4.3 - Natural AMAs (antimicrobial agents)5 - Contact based antimicrobial coatings5.1 - Cationic polymers5.2 - Cationic peptides5.3 - Chloropolymers: Active chlorine transfer5.4 - Photoactive coatings: Titania and benzophenone6- Superhydrophobic antifouling (anticontact) surfaces6.1 - Stainless-steel substrate superhydrophobic antifouling surfaces6.2 - Non-stainless-steel substrate superhydrophobic antifouling surfaces7 - Repulsion-based antifouling surfaces8 - Other antifouling surface modifications9 - Conclusions ConclusionsA considerable amount of research has been performed in recent years to develop antibacterial and antifouling surfaces that could have widespread application in food contact contexts such as kitchen tools, kitchen workspaces, food handling clothes, food processing equipment, and food packaging. Use of these materials in food harvesting, transportation, and preparation from the farm to the consumer table could have significant safety and economic impacts. The risk of foodborne illnesses, a widespread phenomenon, might be mitigated, reducing both human mortality and the associated medical costs. Furthermore, the extension of safe shelf life of foods could significantly reduce food wastage and associated economic loss. The diversity of different food contact surfaces that might be seen as potential applications for this research has led to a wide variety of technologies being developed. Each of these strategies at mitigating the transmission of foodborne pathogens has its own strengths and disadvantages. These are very briefly summarized in Table 11 of the paper.Further research needs to be performed to overcome some of the disadvantages of these materials in order to improve their technical and economic feasibility before immediate commercial application. In particular, ongoing efforts are more focused on multifunctional antifouling materials where more than one antifouling strategy is incorporated into coatings. For instance, the combination of superhydrophobic and release?based coatings can effectively prevent bacterial adhesion and if any bacteria get within close proximity of the coating, they can be inactivated by the released AMAs. Similarly, repulsion?based coatings and contact?based coatings can achieve similar synergistic action. In this case, the steric repulsion will keep bacteria away from the coating. If bacteria manage to contact the coating, the contact?based antibacterial agents can inactivate them. Because the need and utilization of contact?based antibacterial agent is much lowered, the lifetime of the combined system can be significantly higher than that of just contact?based coatings. For the area of superhydrophobic coatings, there is a need to develop antifouling surface coatings that are more mechanically durable and avoid the use of fluorinated organic chemicals. The food industry environment is very complex where a rinsing and washing solution does not contain only bacteria, but it contains proteins, detergents, and sanitizers as well. For repulsion?based coatings, complexation and neutralization reactions, which can be induced by residues and debris existing in the food industry environment, tend to reduce efficacy of such coatings. Despite these yet unsolved technical challenges, the field of antimicrobial and antifouling surface development for food contact applications appears to be a promising one. The potential for large and rapid impact by the adoption of developed technologies is evident. Some potential applications of these technologies include the production of safety equipment worn by agricultural and kitchen workers, produce sorting machines, bulk food processing equipment, workbenches in food production facilities and kitchens, kitchen implements, and food packaging. Source Recent developments in antimicrobial and antifouling coatings to reduce or prevent contamination and cross?contamination of food contact surfaces by bacteriaWilliam DeFlorio, Shuhao Liu, Andrew R. White. Thomas Matthew Taylor, Luis Cisneros?Zevallos, Younjin Min Ethan & M. A. ScholarCOMPREHENSIVE REVIEWS IN FOOD SCIENCE AND FOOD SAFETY, Wiley Online Library?https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1541-4337.12750?af=R&utm_medium=email&utm_source=rasa_io&PostID=29818493&MessageRunDetailID=5162420026https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-4337.12750 Picture,?How Do Antimicrobial Coatings Work??