A Scalable and Rechargeable Antimicrobial Coating for Food Equipment

Our goal is to further understand the properties of our newly developed DOHA antimicrobial coating and develop optimized coating formulation that can provide desired performance for supporting commercial applications. After completing the National Science Foundation (NSF) ICorps Team program with over 90 in-person interviews with sanitation/food safety/operational managers in the food industry, we validated a need and built a model for application in ready-toeat food manufacturing (figure 4). Ideally, our coating needs to retain ample chlorine to be effective for up to 1 week without bleach rinse recharge, and also remain in-tact and effective for 3 months before coating reapplication during quarterly planned maintenance. This use case is derived from plant protocols to sanitize with chlorine-based cleaners at least weekly and perform planned maintenance every quarter. After communicating with industry experts, we also understand that Lm is currently the environmental pathogen of most concerned, and thus we will use multiple Lm resistance strains as model environmental pathogens. Based on customer feedback, key criteria for the proposed work are:1) Obtain coating thickness and adhesion that can survive 3 months of sanitation scrubbing. 2) Prove that the coating is compatible and non-reactive to normal sanitation chemicals. 3) Validate that the coating is effective against multiple listeria persistent strains. 4) Validate that the coating prevents biofilms form forming for up to 3 months in-service