From: The eUpdate, 3.15.2011
Researchers to Develop Self-Sanitizing Surfaces
Scientists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have recently received a four-year, $488,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) to create a “self-sanitizing” top layer for food processing surfaces such as counters and conveyors. A team led by Julie Goddard, PhD, assistant professor of food science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, reported that halamine-infused surfaces could achieve a 5-log reduction for a number of organisms relevant to food quality, including Listeria and E. coli. “When you modify the surface of food processing materials, like some plastics and stainless steels, you can introduce halamine into just the surface layer,” Dr. Goddard said in an interview with Food Quality. “Halamine complexes chlorine very strongly, so every time you rinse the surface with bleach, it recharges the layer’s existing antimicrobial power. “