Biofilms represent serious challenges to the food industry since they enable bacteria to adhere to various kinds of surfaces. However, due to the physiological changes and the protective barrier mediated by the biofilm matrix, this sessile life mode has represented an outstanding survival strategy for microorganisms since ancient times. Furthermore, it protects against stressful environmental conditions commonly encountered by bacteria in food processing facilities. Thus, biofilms have notoriously been identified as responsible for equipment damage, increased energy costs, food spoilage and diseases.

Though multi-species biofilms represent the most frequent form of contamination in most food processing environments, most knowledge regarding biofilm formation is based on studies of single-species biofilms. These studies have generated a substantial amount of information. Still, they do not necessarily reflect the potential of mixed-species biofilms, as metabolic interactions facilitate bacterial properties different from single-species biofilms, which will influence the formed biofilm's temporal and spatial properties. In addition, behavior of multi-species biofilms can profoundly differ from the single-species biofilms (e.g. the higher resistance to disinfectants and antimicrobials compared to single-species biofilms).

Fully grasping the physiology and metabolic activity of microorganisms in multi-species biofilms can be challenging. Still, it will result in a better understanding of the driving interactions of a community and, in turn, the development of more efficient strategies for controlling unwanted biofilm formation.

The Research Topic is going to collect original research, review, mini-review, perspective, and opinion articles on the following themes, but is not limited to:

• The mechanisms underlying the formation of multi-species biofilms
• The persistence and resistance under food processing environments
• The development of appropriate methods to study multi-species biofilms
• The potential novel strategies to control the formation of multi-species biofilms

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Frontiers in Microbiology

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