Microbial harborage and ecology in food processing environments
Surface-associated microbial communities vary in composition and structure. Research has also shown that the development of multispecies biofilms may cross-protect L. monocytogenes from sanitation. We aim to reduce the risk of cross-contamination from surfaces in food manufacturing environments into food products by locating potential microbial harborage points. We work to extensively categorize 
different swab sites within food processing facilities and identify how spatial and temporal variables can affect the microbial ecology of these harborage points.
We utilize methods including classical microbiology, metagenomics, cleaning simulations, and quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the interface between inanimate surface and microbial or allergenic contaminants.
Surface-associated microbial communities vary in composition and and structure. Research has also shown that the development of multispecies biofilms may cross-protect L. monocytogenes from sanitation. We aim to reduce the risk of cross-contamination from surfaces in food manufacturing environments into food products. We utilize methods such as: include metagenomics, cleaning simulations, and quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the interface between inanimate surface and microbial or allergenic contaminants
Daly et al. 2024 (C)
Publications
A schema for digitized surface swab site metadata in open-source DNA sequence databases
Awards
U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch project 2022-67017-36289