Antimicrobial Coatings for Food Contact Surfaces

Dear Colleagues,

The World Health Organization (2019) estimates that 600 million people fall ill and 420,000 people die each year due to contaminated food. While there are many possible sources of food contamination, contaminated food contact surfaces (FCS) are a common cause for such incidents. For instance, FCS in food processing facilities may become contaminated with several unwanted microorganisms, such as Listeria monocytogenes , Escherichia coli O157:H7, and Staphylococcus aureus. There are numerous sanitary practices intended to prevent microbial contamination of food products and FCS, but the practice per excellence is prevention. To reduce contamination and the spread of disease, these surfaces may be treated with sanitizers or have active antimicrobial components adhered to them. The ideal antimicrobial coating is potent, chemically resistant, mechanically resistant, chemically stable, nonabsorbent, innocuous, inexpensive, and easy‐to‐clean when placed in complex environments. 

Although significant efforts have been devoted to the development of coatings that improve the antimicrobial effectiveness of FCS, other important coating considerations, such as hardness, adhesion to a substrate, and migration of the antimicrobial substance into the food matrix, have largely been disregarded, to the detriment of their translation into practical application. Recent studies suggest that, with a combination of approaches, these limitations can be overcome in a way that enables their practical implementation across the food industry.

The scope of this Special Issue will serve as a forum for papers on the following concepts related to antimicrobial coating for food contact surfaces, where food contact surfaces include processing equipment (utensils, tools, machines, etc.) as well as packaging materials, among others:

• Studies on mechanical properties of thin films and coatings;
• Studies on antimicrobial coatings for specific microorganisms;
• Studies on antimicrobial materials (films, coatings, filters, membranes, porous materials, etc.) to reduce biofouling;
• Studies on antimicrobial agents that
• Improve the properties of food packaging, or
• Decontaminate the surface, or
• Induce antimicrobial properties at the surface;
• Studies where the antimicrobial substance or agent is
• Directly incorporated into the substrate matrix, or
• Released from an inner/outer layer and migrates before arranging at the food matrix, or
• Released from a coating, or
• Immobilized on the substrate’s surface;
• Studies where the antimicrobial coating may also serve as a food additive;
• Studies regarding the durability of antimicrobial coatings during typical industrial or at-home cleaning practices;
• Studies of food additives and their impact on antimicrobial behavior;
• Studies exploring the mechanisms of antimicrobial behavior;
• Studies exploring optimization and co-optimization of coating properties, including mechanical and antimicrobial properties;
• Studies exploring a variety of materials characterization techniques that can be used to evaluate more than only antimicrobial behavior;

Prof. Dr. Heather K. Hunt
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Antimicrobial agents
• Coatings and films
• Contact surfaces
• Food additives
• Mechanical properties