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Biofilms are bacterial communities embedded in exopolysaccharide, enhancing the difficulty of detaching bacterial cells from surfaces. Due to structural properties, it is difficult to detach biofilms. Many removal methods have been developed, but there are still some limitations such as sample size and reproducibility. “Spindle” was developed, producing a higher quality suspension which can be used for further study. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors compared the enumeration of biofilm-forming cells detached from the spindle and stomacher in various surfaces. First, the authors chose stainless steel and polyvinyl chloride to attach biofilms and to be subjected to stomacher and spindle for up to 2 min. Also, the authors evaluated the efficiency of detachment from vegetable surfaces.

In a comparative experiment of abiotic surfaces, the spindle showed identical effectiveness for detaching biofilm-forming cells compared to the stomacher, recovering the population by 8-log for Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes. The spindle also showed no significant difference from the stomacher in the number of recovered cells which is 4-log from vegetable surfaces. However, turbidity after spinach was subjected to spindle was 4.37 NTU, while it was 99 NTU for stomacher, which was in accord with visual result about clearance.

This study demonstrated that the spindle is a useful to separate biofilms from surfaces without destructing structure, and thus it can be used for analysis in food laboratories as well as utilized for vegetable washing step in the food industry.

This paper seeks to highlight the importance of bacterial associations with surfaces, with particular reference to food processing.

A historical and interdisciplinary review of recent literature combined with research on biofilms on surfaces was conducted.

The association of micro‐organisms with surfaces is the prevailing microbial lifestyle and bacterial biofilms may represent reservoirs for the spread of antimicrobial‐resistance genes.

This paper is a condensed summary of relevant information on the discipline of bacterial biofilms as a whole, with special reference to food processing and safety.

At the passing of the Fair Trading Act, 1973, and the setting up of a Consumer Protection Service with an Office of Fair Trading under a Director‐General, few could have visualized this comprehensive machinery devised to protect the mainly economic interests of consumers could be used to further the efforts of local enforcement officers and authorities in the field of purity and quality control of food and of food hygiene in particular. This, however, is precisely the effect of a recent initiative under Sect. 34 of the Act, reported elsewhere in the BFJ, taken by the Director‐General in securing from a company operating a large group of restaurants a written undertaking, as prescribed by the Section, that it would improve its standards of hygiene; the company had ten convictions for hygiene contraventions over a period of six years.

Reports of a number of countries imposing a limited ban on the use of D.D.T. have appeared from time to time in the B.F.J., but in the last few months, what was a trickle seems to have become an avalanche. In Canada, for example, relatively extensive restrictions apply from January 1st, permitting D.D.T. for insect control in only 12 agricultural crops, compared with 62 previously; there is a reduction of maximum levels for most fruits to 1 ppm. Its cumulative properties in fat are recognized and the present levels of 7 ppm in fat of cattle, sheep and pigs are to remain, but no trace is permitted in milk, butter, cheese, eggs, ice cream, other dairy products, nor potatoes. A U.S. Commission has advised that D.D.T. should be gradually phased out and completely banned in two years' time, followed by the Report of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides and Other Toxic Chemicals recommending withdrawal in Britain of some of the present uses of D.D.T. (also aldrin and dieldrin) on farm crops when an alternative becomes available. Further recommendations include an end to D.D.T. in paints, lacquers, oil‐based sprays and in dry cleaning; and the banning of small retail packs of D.D.T. and dieldrin for home use in connection with moth‐proofing or other insect control. The Report states that “domestic users are often unaware that using such packs involve the risk of contaminating prepared food immediately before it is eaten”.