Assessing the impact of heavy metal residues in food and drug packaging on the standard bacterial strains: a biofilm perspective

ABSTRACT

The presence and migration of heavy metals from food and drug packaging materials into consumables pose significant health concerns. This study explored the effects of vanadium, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury contained in the digest of packaging materials on biofilms formed by standard strains of Escherichia coli ATCC 25923, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 70063, and Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212. Results showed that vanadium at 1.2 µg/ml promoted strong biofilm formation in all tested bacteria, while cadmium (1 µg/ml) and mercury (6.6 µg/ml) supressed biofilm formation. Arsenic at 0.6 µg/ml initially facilitated biofilm formation, but its effectiveness decreased with higher concentrations. This interference of heavy metals digests on biofilm formation in the gut microbiota is a concern, as leached heavy metals into food when consumed could disrupt the balance of human intestinal flora and homeostasis.

KEYWORDS:

• Heavy metals
• drug packaging
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• biofilm
• human intestinal flora

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Department of Microbiology, KMC, Mangalore, and Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of technology, Karnataka, for providing all the facilities required during the course of this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception, design, writing, and reviewing of the final manuscript. The details are summarised as follows:

Conceptualization: [S.M., D.B., R.M.S.].

Methodology: [S.M., D.B.].

Formal analysis and investigation: [S.M., D.B., R.M.S., P.M.].

Writing – original draft preparation [S.H., S.M.].

Editing and revising the manuscript: [D.B., S.M., R.M.S.].

Approval of the final version of the manuscript: [S.M., D.B., R.M.S., P.M., S.H.].

Data availability statement

Data can be made available upon request from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the Rotary club of Dombivili Suncity Part of Rotary District 3142 under Rotary International [Club I.D – 84860].