Name: Understanding and Addressing Biofilm Communities and Behavior in the Food Plant
Start: 2024-08-29T14:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-08-29T00:00:00-04:00

Understanding and Addressing Biofilm Communities and Behavior in the Food Plant

8/29/24 2:00 pm to 8/29/25 EDT

Contact: Vania Halabou

Biofilms are complex communities of microorganisms that can work to "protect" pathogenic bacteria in food plant settings. The first steps to mitigating the presence of biofilms are to understand the different elements of biofilms typically found in food processing facilities, how they form, how they impact our facilities, and what challenges they pose for sanitation. From this understanding, we can determine how to apply different technologies and interventions, focusing on a longer-term strategy for eliminating biofilms in the plant.

In this webinar, speakers with expertise in industry food safety, sanitation, and genomics will provide education on the formation and behavior of biofilms and the challenges they pose to food safety and sanitation operations (e.g., genetic changes, such as persistence and sanitizer tolerance, and the roles these play in antimicrobial resistance). They will also explain how biofilm formation can be mitigated in the food plant with innovative sanitation methods and tools.

From this webinar, attendees will learn:

The fundamentals of biofilms and how they can provide protection for pathogens in the food plant, creating food safety risk
How to mitigate the formation of biofilms in the food plant
How to employ successful sanitation methods and tools to mitigate the presence of biofilms

Speakers:

Angela Anandappa, Ph.D., CEO and Founding Director, Alliance for Advanced Sanitation. Angela Anandappa, Ph.D., is the CEO and Founding Director for the Alliance for Advanced Sanitation, as well as the Executive Director of the Animal Digestible Food Packaging Initiative. She has researched and worked in food industry safety and genomics for over 20 years. Previously, Dr. Anandappa helped establish the Food Systems Innovation Center at the University of Kentucky with the goal of providing resources for local food businesses. She also led the supply chain food safety pillar of The Kraft Heinz Company. She has been instrumental in product development and the launch of food, beverage, and animal feed products ranging from very small to billion-dollar brands. Dr. Anandappa earned her Ph.D. in Animal and Food Science from the University of Kentucky with a focus on food microbiology and systems level food safety programs. She is a member of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO), and other industry associations, and is the Chair of the Food Chemical Hazards and Food Allergy PDG at IAFP. She is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Food Safety Magazine.

Jasna Kovac, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Food Science, Pennsylvania State University. Jasna Kovac, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at The Pennsylvania State University's Department of Food Science. She earned a B.Sc. degree in Microbiology and a Ph.D. in Biosciences/Biotechnology from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, where she studied molecular epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in Campylobacter. Dr. Kovac conducted pre-doctoral and post-doctoral research in microbial genomics at the University of Oxford and Cornell University in the Maiden and Wiedmann labs, respectively. In 2017, she founded the precision food safety lab at The Pennsylvania State University. Her lab integrates next-generation sequencing and microbiological methods to investigate factors affecting foodborne pathogen transmission, persistence, virulence, and antimicrobial resistance. One of the key research areas of her lab includes studying the role of environmental microbiota in the persistence and resistance of foodborne pathogens in food processing environments.

Moderator: Adrienne Blume, M.A., Editorial Director, Food Safety Magazine

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