Detection of dairy fouling by cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry

Fouling in food processing environment can cause the increase of production costs due to additional cleaning steps and risk of contamination of food products. There is a demand to introduce advanced techniques to detect fouling in food processing equipment. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) were probed in this work to detect the dairy fouling and the reconstructed dairy emulsion by platinum-based interdigitated microelectrodes. The results demonstrated that both methods can potentially be used for the fouling detection, since the attachment of fouling to the microelectrode surface leads to lower current responses compared to the clean microelectrodes.

Electrochemical detection of food-spoiling bacteria using interdigitated platinum microelectrodes

The fast and non-destructive detection of bacterial attachment on food contact surfaces is important for the prevention of the unwanted formation of biofilms. Biofilms constitute a protected growth mode that allows bacteria to survive even in hostile environments. Therefore, the fast detection of bacterial attachment may be an effective strategy for biofilm control. In this study cyclic voltammetry (CV) was used to detect Bacillus subtilis ssp. subtilis, Paenibacillus polymyxa, Pseudomonas fragi attachment on interdigitated microelectrodes. The differences in current between the uncolonized sterile microelectrodes and the microelectrodes after bacterial attachment were determined. In addition, the surface coverage of microelectrodes was visualized using microscopy techniques. The results showed that the cyclic voltammetry in combination with interdigitated platinum microelectrodes can be used to detect bacterial biofilms.