Physico-chemical mechanisms governing the adherence of starch granules on materials with different hydrophobicities.

The factors influencing the adherence of starch were examined to improve the understanding of the mechanisms affecting soiling and cleanability. Therefore an aqueous suspension of starch granules was sprayed on four model substrates (glass, stainless steel, polystyrene and PTFE) and dried, and the substrates were cleaned using a radial-flow cell. The morphology of the soiled surfaces and the substrate chemical composition were also characterized. By influencing droplet spreading and competition between granule-substrate and granule-granule interfaces regarding the action of capillary forces, substrate wettability affected the shape and compactness of the adhering aggregates, the efficiency of shear forces upon cleaning, and finally the adherence of soiling particles. The rate of drying had an influence explained by the duration left to capillary forces for acting. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrated the presence of macromolecules, mainly polysaccharides, which were adsorbed from the liquid phase, or carried by the retracting water film and deposited at the granule-substrate interface. These macromolecules acted as an adhesive joint, the properties of which seemed to be influenced by the detailed history of drying and subsequent exposure to humidity. In summary, the substrate surface energy affects the adherence of starch aggregates by different mechanisms which are all linked together: suspension droplet spreading, action of capillary forces, direct interaction with starch particles and interfacial macromolecules.

Hygiene and cleanability: a focus on surfaces.

Hygiene is a permanent concern for food industries since they must commercialize high quality products in order to comply with the legislation and the expectations of the consumers. The hygienic state of a surface is thus a critical parameter with respect to the performances of the production process and to the final quality of the product. For this reason, cleaning and disinfection are essential. However, the efficiency of the cleaning process will not only depend on the optimization of the process by itself and on the equipment design but also on the characteristics of the soiled surface i.e. mainly its roughness, surface chemical composition, and surface energy. The relation between these parameters and the cleanability are presented here, mainly for food applications. Some examples of existing easy-to-clean and self-cleaning surfaces based on the modification of these surface parameters are also presented.

Possible influence of surfactants and proteins on the efficiency of contact agar microbiological surface sampling.

Agar contact microbiological sampling techniques, based on a transfer of the microorganisms present on a surface to a culture medium, are widely used to assess and control surface cleanliness and to evaluate microbial contamination levels. The effectiveness of these techniques depends on many environmental parameters that influence the strength of attachment of the bacteria to the surface. In the present study, stainless steel and high density polyethylene surfaces were inoculated with known concentrations of Staphylococcus epidermidis. Following an experimental design, the surfaces were sampled with different types of replicate organism direct agar contact plates and Petrifilm; results indicated that recovery rates were influenced by the presence of egg white albumin or Tween 80 in the inoculum solutions or by the introduction of surfactants into the contact agar of the microbiological sampling techniques. The techniques yielded significantly different results, depending on sampling conditions, underlining the need for a standardization of laboratory experiments to allow relevant comparisons of such techniques.