Novel sanitation approaches to control Listeria biofilms in the organic produce industry

The overall goal of this project is to develop and validate novel sanitation strategies to control Listeria biofilms in the organic produce industry on food-contact surfaces and equipment.and biofilm forms on different surfaces representative of organic produce handling and processing facilities; (ii) Characterize microbial dynamics and composition by imaging, spectroscopy and genomic approaches; (iii) Develop and optimize the simultaneous use of UV-C and lactic acid from lab bench settings to industrial prototyping; (iv) Validate the system in commercial harvesting and packing facilities representative of different commodities and different production capabilities; (iv) offer workshop and demonstration on cleaning and sanitation practices targeting organic growers around the nation, and evaluate the economic costs and benefits as well as the risks and implications for the developed prototype.