Characterization of Microbial Growth On Processing Equipment By Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

Microbial activity that leads to the formation of biofilms on process equipment can accelerate corrosion, reduce heat transfer rates, and generally decrease process efficiencies. Additional concerns arise in the food and pharma industries where product quality and safety are a high priority. Pharmaceutical production with sterilized water lowers the risk of microbial growth and contamination. Within the food industry the cost would be prohibitive. In poultry processing, for example, bird carcasses are directly contacted by process water which becomes contaminated and remains on the wetted surfaces of the equipment. Immersion chilling is practiced in the United States to rapidly cool bird carcasses to inhibit bacterial growth. Biofilm formation was investigated in the presence of the disinfectant trisodium phosphate and hard water ions. Microbial growth was followed by optical density (OD) measurements and biofilm formation was characterized with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS).