PhD Oral Defense: Evaluation of Conditioning Film Formation under Static and Dynamic Flow Processing on Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Surfaces and Its Effects an Bacterial Adhesion
PhD Oral Defense of Nikhil Hiremath, Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry.
Understanding the adhesion of biological substances such as macromolecules and microorganisms (known as biofilms) to abiotic surfaces has deleterious effects in the food industry environment leading to food safety problems. Among the biomolecules proteins are known to precondition the surface very rapidly, closely followed by the adsorption or adhesion of other biomolecules and microorganisms. In this study the two abiotic model surfaces mica and polystyrene were conditioned with proteins (BSA, CAS), microbial growth media (TSB) and milk (WML, SML) under static and flow processing conditions. The extent of protein adsorbed to surfaces was quantified using the micro BCA protein assay. The food contact surfaces (mica and polystyrene), both conditioned and not conditioned, were characterized using contact angle measurements to obtain various surface thermodynamic properties (surface energy and its components, and absolute hydrophobicity).