New anti-microbial coating for the food industry

Bacteria are a common cause of foodborne illness. The Food Standards Agency (FSA)
estimates that each year in the UK:
• around a million people suffer a foodborne illness
• around 20,000 people receive hospital treatment due to foodborne illness
• there are around 500 deaths caused by foodborne illness
• costing UK nearly £1.5 billion
Bacteria colonizing food processing surfaces are extremely difficult to eradicate. Biofilm
formation on food contact surfaces can have a detrimental effect on the healthy status of food.
As a consequence, food spoilage can occur that may lead to reduced shelf life and increased
risk of food poisoning from pathogens.
Our plan is to introduce a tough, new antimicrobial coating for food contact surfaces that has
wide-spectrum anti-bacterial activity as well as some anti-fungal activity. Such a coating can
be used in food preparation areas where pathogens can easily be spread through contact with
surfaces.
The FSA strategy is for UK food producers and processors to adopt improved practices to
reduce or prevent the contamination of foods at source and to minimise spread or growth of
pathogens during production, storage and transportation. FSA estimates suggest that a 1%
reduction in case numbers would mean around 10,000 fewer cases and save the economy
around £15 million per year.
This market assessment study seeks to identify an optimal market entry point for our new antimicrobial
coating by consulting stakeholders in the food production value chain directly to
assess their willingness to adopt a new approach. We hope to identify an optimal Proof-of-
Concept application to demonstrate superior performance against current alternatives and thus
steer future R&D to meet the needs of a wide range of applications in a market where UK
consumer expenditure on food and drink exceeds £196bn annually, and UK exports of food,
feed and drink were valued at £18.9bn in 2013.