ENGINEERING PLASMA ARRAYS TO REMOVE BIOFILMS FROM FOOD PROCESSING SURFACES

foodborne pathogens create biofilms on surfaces encountered in food processing facilities. these pathogens are a significant source of contamination that threaten the food safety of the nation and result in millions of foodborne illness every year. reducing the incidence of foodborne pathogens in food processing equipment requires harsh chemicals and factory down time. a technology that could accomplish 'in-line' decontamination would save millions of dollars, decrease the incidence of foodborne illness, and reduce the use of precious water resources. cold atmospheric-pressure plasmas (caps) use ionized gases to eradicate microbial pathogens on agriculturally important surfaces. we propose to leverage the results of our usda seed grant to develop cap devices that can be deployed in a variety of food industries. this project will use an engineering approach to develop several device configurations to deliver sanitizing plasma to solve problems encountered with biofilm accumulation in industry. the project has the following goals: (1) determine the optimal conditions and mechanisms of cap mediated antimicrobial action, (2) construct a planar array cap device for in line treatment of flat surfaces, (3) design and implement a radial array cap device. our prior work has shown that a linear discharge cap device can successfully kill bacterial biofilms (e. coli, salmonella, listeria, pseudomonas, staph. aureus) grown on a variety of relevant surfaces (steel, glass, plastic, rubber). those experiments are the basis for developing cap arrays that could be deployed in a variety of manufacturing environments to reduce chemical cleaning requirements, thus providing benefit to the food industry.