Tech Perspective

AARON HAND | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Polymer Surface Treatment Improves Sanitation Ef ciency

Start-up company Bio-Fence has created an innovative polymer that, when added to a topcoat/paint, binds disinfectant to the surface, increasing sanitation e ciency and eliminating pathogenic bacteria.

AN ESTIMATED 600 MILLION people in the world—almost one in 10—fall ill after eating contaminated food, and 420,000 people die every year, according to the World Health Organization. Environmental pathogens within food production processes remain a considerable risk to food safety, with the presence of various bacteria in the production environment directly linked to the contamination of food.

Traditional sanitizers used on food production surfaces work for only a short time, so need to be reapplied regularly to the contaminated surfaces. Israeli start-up Bio-Fence has developed a breakthrough technology that acts as a topcoat layer on surfaces, prolonging the e ciency of traditional sanitizers. When the surface is sanitized with a traditional sanitation agent such as chlorine, BioFence polymers within the topcoat extend the chlorine’s sanitization activity and improve its e ciency.

In an 11-week proof of concept (POC) in a hot dog peeling room, all traces of listeria spp in this highly sensitive food production environment were successfully eliminated. Despite repeated, strict cleaning and disinfection routines, the facility had previously encountered listeria spp, particularly on the production floor. Following the application of the Bio-Fence coating, listeria was eliminated from the floor surface.

Ofer Shoham, CEO of Bio-Fence and an expert in food hygiene for almost four decades, explains how the technology works.

PFW: Tell me how Bio-Fence got started as a company and what the premise is behind your technology. Shoham: In 2018, I was approached by the Kitchen Hub, which is the largest food tech incubator in Israel. They know me for my many years of experience as a food hygiene specialist working with the Strauss Group. They presented me with a technology that was very interesting for me, because I was looking for that kind of direction as a solution. So, we established a company at the end of 2018, and we recruited a scientific team and we started to develop the technology.

There was not really any product, using an organic polymer, that when you add it to a painted coating, it is able to bind and stabilize biocides on the surface. This is the heart of the technology. So it’s actually creating antimicrobial surfaces, but not using antimicrobial coating.

Ofer Shoham, Bio-Fence

PFW: Explain that a bit more. What is the difference between using the Bio-Fence product as opposed to an antimicrobial coating on a plant oor? Shoham: Most of the technology that exists today for antimicrobial coatings is based on the silver ions and other technologies which are toxic and not e cient. Our technology is quite unique. We are not creating antimicrobial coatings but creating coatings that— when you apply them on a surface and use biocides such as chloride peroxide—those biocides instead of working for five to 10 minutes, they’ll stabilize on the surface for hours, days, weeks, and even months. And by that we are creating an antimicrobial surface.

PFW: That sounds like an important distinction that food manufacturers wouldn’t necessarily understand. Shoham: Exactly. The problem with antimicrobial coatings that has existed for centuries is that the food producers really don’t believe that it can support them with their problems because they’ve tried that, and they probably got some disappointing results. Our approach is totally di erent. We are using the powerful ability of ordinary disinfectant that is being used day to day in the food facilities.

Hot dogs present complex challenges to maintaining hygiene levels. The production environment includes low temperatures, humidity, condensation and heavy movement of workers and equipment—all conditions under which listeria can thrive. But instead of vanishing from the surface after a few minutes, they are staying active for a very long period of time. And by that they eliminate any presence of pathogens on those surfaces for days.

PFW: Back up a bit and explain what the issues are that food producers are facing. What situation are you working to solve? Shoham: I’ve been working with the food industry for so many years trying to support them to solve food safety issues around environmental pathogens like salmonella, E. coli, listeria, pseudomonas, Campylobacter—those pathogens are causing illnesses with humans who consume the food. If you look at the food industry, they’re putting so much e ort into eliminating the presence of those pathogens in the food product. But the problem is that they are losing control when it comes to the environment. Those pathogens are there in the environment, and they have very limited ability to control and to eliminate that by just using cleaning and sanitation protocols.

PFW: Let’s talk about how the Bio-Fence technology works. When the polymer is applied to plant surfaces, it prolongs the effectiveness of the sanitizer. How do users know when they need to retreat their surfaces? Shoham: When the surface has been coated—the floor or the walls or the infrastructure—and then you do your regular sanitation regime, you clean and then you disinfect with the biocide, and this biocide is stabilized on the surface. When you’re doing this normal sanitation process, you actually disinfect, but also charge the coating with the biocide and make it able to be active until the next sanitation.

Daily sanitation is done when you have a lot of organic material in production. There are some production environments which are cleaned weekly or monthly. It depends on the environment—the walls might not be cleaned every day. Our technology is adapting to the sanitation regime. We also give tools for the customer to test if the biocide is still active on the surface. PFW: Tell me about the proof of concept that BioFence did with the hot dog peeling room. Shoham: When we wanted to evaluate our technology in a real-life situation—not just lab tests and small POCs—I said to myself, I need to choose a place where the condition is so bad and so challenging that if we succeed there, we can succeed everywhere. Working with the food industry in Israel for almost four decades, I know all of them. And I know what kind of problems they are dealing with. A hot dog peeling room is a place which contains all the parameters that listeria will be very happy to be in—it’s kind of a flight to the Caribbean for listeria.

There are so many incidents of listeria contamination in hot dogs. When the hot dog is being produced, you take the meat, and you wrap it in a nylon package to shape the size of the hot dog. And then you cook it, with the long chains of hot dogs together being cooked in an oven, and then you take it out. And then you need to peel this plastic cover because it’s not edible; it’s only for shaping the form.

In that area, the peeling machine uses steam and that creates a lot of mist. And it’s a very cold area. And there is a lot of tra c coming in and out of crates, with hot dogs and people coming in and out. And it’s the end of the production, so if there is listeria in the environment, it all came into there.

I know that site, which is a very high-quality site facing that problem for a long time. Although they are practicing five times per day their cleaning procedure, after the cleaning, they are testing the environment and they can find listeria. And so, the objective was of course to prove that our technology can prevent listeria in that area—but also if we can provide a higher standard of hygiene and also ease of use.

PFW: What sort of results did you get from the POC? Shoham: We saw tremendous improvement. Before that, day by day, they got listeria contamination on the floor; and after the coating, nothing except for one incident that was done on a weekend in which they didn’t follow procedure regarding the using of the biocide. It’s been more than four months now, they keep checking, and there’s no listeria anymore in that facility. This place was su ering for many years of listeria contamination in the environment, and now they are very happy with the result.

The conclusion was that our technology works in a real-time challenging condition under heavy organic load in a wet environment using chloride, which is a commonly use biocide in routine sanitation. It successfully eliminated the presence of listeria and also achieved a high level of hygiene.

Bio-Fence

www.bio-fence.com