World's first company targeting biofilms wants to enter China

BRUSSELS - China is a very important and huge market and we really want to enter China, Gordon Blackman, CEO of Realco, a Belgian company and world leader in enzyme-based hygiene solutions, has told Xinhua recently.

Realco is the first company in the world to produce cleaning products that target biofilms.

However, Realco has no office in China now. "We really have to do something and we are now looking for partners to conduct win-win cooperation," said Blackman. Biofilm is created by an accumulation of bacteria that develops a protective matrix made up of organic polymers. It can develop on various surfaces in the food industry, such as exchangers, tanks, cooling systems, food pipes and membrane filters.

According to Blackman, if biofilm is ignored, millions of bacteria will keep exchanging the genes of resistance to antibiotic and bacteria encased in a biofilm can be up to 1,000 times more resistant to disinfectants than planktonic bacteria.

In order to eliminate biofilms, the first step is to degrade the organic matrix using enzyme. Realco worked in collaboration with Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), Belgium and National Institute of Agronomical Research (INRA), France for two years to develop a cocktail of natural enzyme to eliminate biofilms.

Once the protective layer has been eliminated, the bacteria will be left without any protection and become planktonic and accessible to disinfectants.