Biofilm control strategies in food industry: Inhibition and utilization

Background: Biofilms are microorganisms community embedded in the self-secreted extracellular polymeric substances, which can provide microbes with strong tolerance and favorable living environments. As an important physiological indicator, biofilm formation could not only induce various food safety problems but also regulate the accumulation of different bio-products. Scope and approach: This review aims to summarize the regulation strategies of controlling biofilm in food process and enhancing production of different bioproducts by utilizing biofilm. Therefore, research papers published during the past decades were summarized and discussed. Key findings and conclusions: Mature biofilm consists of exopolysaccharides, extracellular DNA and proteins. Three processes of biofilm formation can be utilized for biofilm regulation. Inhibiting biofilm formation and eradicating mature biofilm are commonly used for solving food related problems. Among them, ultrasound, ultraviolet, magnetic fields with magneto-materials, different chemicals addition such as amino acids and vitamins, and many other inhibitors present extraordinary biofilm inhibition ability. However, several biofilm utilization techniques exhibit potential application value for enhancing food additives and biochemicals production, including providing proper culture environments, metabolic engineering, using biofilm devices and bio-electrochemical system. To further explore the effects of biofilm regulation in food industry and exploit more regulation strategies for productivity improvement, more efforts should be paid on in the future.