Abstract
An essential point to be aware of when studying microbial cleaning and disinfection in food factories is the concept of biofilm. Biofilms are inhabited by a wide variety of microorganisms living in a kind of community, exchanging materials, energy, and information with other microorganisms around them. A biofilm is not simply an aggregate of microbial cells, but a network of macromolecular polymers in which the microbial cells are heterogeneously incorporated. The structure of a biofilm can be compared to a mushroom, but from the microorganism's point of view, it is a giant structure rich in irregularities and filled with "pore water". There are no special removal or sterilization methods for biofilms. The basic principle of microbial removal in food factories is cleaning, so the most important objective is to determine from where the biofilm is being generated. It is then essential to remove the biofilm using physical techniques and science-based cleaning approaches. In addition, the type of organic matter coexisting with the generated biofilm differs depending on the nature of the food plant involved (e.g. lipid-rich or protein-rich). Therefore, it is fundamental to perform cleaning according to the nature of a given instance of contamination. The idea of trying to simply sterilize the biofilm without cleaning is therefore an erroneous notion.
