THE ADHESION OF SALMONELLA-TYPHIMURIUM, L ISTERIA-MONOCYTOGENES AND ESCHERICHIA-COLI O157-H7 TO HIGH-GRADE STEEL SURFACES AS SEEN UNDER THESCANNING ELECTRON-MICROSCOPE

The adhesion of bacteria to surfaces can be observed everywhere in nat ure. In the food industry the adhesion of bacteria is regarded as cont amination of the relevant surfaces such as glass, rubber, aluminium, t eflon, high-grade steel (processing machinery), ceramics (factory floo rs), etc. (DUNSMORE and BATES, 1982; HERALD and ZOTTOLA, 1988; LEWIS a nd GILMOUR, 1987; SCHWACH and ZOTTOLA, 1982; SPEERS et al., 1984; STAN LEY, 1983 and ZOLTAI et al., 1981). The adhesion of micro-organisms to inorganic material is very important as this ''bio-contamination'' re sults in continuing contamination of food coming into contact with it. There are particularly far-reaching results if pathogenic species are present and survive factory cleaning and disinfection. The contaminat ion of surfaces with nonpathogenic organisms is however generally of g reat importance too, whether it is of biological or nonbiological surf aces, as this can lead to food spoilage and thus to economic losses. T he mechanism by means of which bacteria adhere to one another and to s urfaces such as high-grade steel, meat and meat products is not clearl y defined. In the food industry machinery and food contact surfaces ar e generally made of high-grade steel and yet the adhesion of pathogeni c bacteria to such surfaces has only been considered in a very few res earch papers.