(135b) Bacterial Anti-Adhesive and Antifouling Nanofiber for Enhance Food Safety and Hygiene

Millions of cases of foodborne illness happen, and billions in economic burdens are result from outbreaks of foodborne illnesses every year in the world. Polymer is one of the common materials which are used to contact with food directly among the process from farm to table, including storage, sorting, processing, shipping, and marketing. During each step from industrial processing to the table, food contact materials may contribute to food contamination with foodborne pathogens, increasing risks to food safety. In this study, we developed a one-step approach in fabricating a superhydrophobic food contact nanofiber that inhibits and reduces the potential of bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation. We report a bacterial anti-adhesive and antifouling nanofiber prepared by poly(vinyl-chloride) (PVC) electrospinning with a modified nanodiamond. Nanodiamonds were used to improve the strength of nanofiber, provide the rough nanostructure and introducing the functional group which has high chemical activity for further modification and process. Different antimicrobial agents could be included in the membrane through the electrospinning process to achieve antibacterial properties of the resulting nanofiber. To characterize the physico-chemical properties of nanofiber, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), contact angle (CA), scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used. The antiadhesive properties were examined via SEM and pour plating methods against the bacterial pathogen surrogates Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 and Listeria innocua. A static water contact angle of 154.0±1.0° on the nanofiber demonstrated successful development of a superhydrophobic nanofiber. Compared to PVC nanofiber, wettability of the nanofiber could contribute to high bacterial anti-adhesive and antifouling efficiency. The nanodiamond was chosen because of its biocompatibility, antioxidant, and non-allergenic properties. Besides, the process of developing this type of naonofiber in this study is low-cost and easily scalable.