Food Contact Surfaces: Challenges, Legislation and Solutions
Shubham Sharma, Amit K. Jaiswal, Brendan Duffy, Swarna Jaiswal
Abstract
Food contact surfaces (FCSs) include all surfaces that may come in contact with the food during production, processing, and packaging. Food processing industries encounter several challenges due to its microbial interaction with the FCSs, such as cross contamination of pathogenic microorganism or allergens in food, formation of biofilm, biodeterioration of food contact surface leads to food with reduced shelf-life and quality. A legal EU framework provides the fundamental postulates for the safety and inertness for all Food Contact Materials (FCMs). Legislations have an important role in providing regulatory guidance on the quality assurance systems and verifying their implementation as a means of regulatory compliance. This review article is focused on the challenges faced by the food processing industry with respect to food contact surfaces. Furthermore, relevant regulations provided by the European framework regarding the food contact materials are also discussed. Finally, new approaches which stand as the solutions to these challenges are discussed.