A major supermarket chain relies on liquid glass from Nanopool for the health of customers and staff
Italy/Germany 2022
When gingerbread and autumn decorations arrive in the supermarkets, the cooler, damper weather marks the start of the high season for many viral illnesses. Both coronavirus and influenza pathogens give the cozy time of year an unpleasant side, during which retailers must actively safeguard the health of their customers as well as their staff. To sustainably increase hygiene safety in its stores, a major retail chain is now successfully relying on the germ-repellent coating technology Bacterlon®.
When staff absences due to coronavirus and flu illnesses push companies to their limits and customers once again reduce their time in stores to the bare minimum, an effective solution for easily achieving the highest hygiene standards is worth its weight in gold. Alongside protection through face coverings, contact surfaces also play a central role. However, intensified cleaning and disinfection cycles tie up valuable resources in a time-consuming and costly way, because the constantly repeated cleaning and disinfecting of contact surfaces is a textbook Sisyphean task: renewed colonization and spread of germs is possible at any time, especially during the autumn/winter virus season.
A major supermarket chain in Europe is therefore completely rethinking the subject of hygiene safety and, as part of a pilot application, is tackling smear infections at their root: preventing the adhesion and spread of microorganisms on surfaces. This is made possible by an ultra-thin functional barrier layer with which the German family-owned company Nanopool pursues an approach that is as effective as it is resource-saving:
The high-performance coating Bacterlon® gives surfaces germ-repellent properties and is sustainable in two respects: on the one hand, the protective coating has an extraordinary lifespan; on the other hand, Bacterlon® makes surfaces so highly repellent to dirt and germs that cleaning with warm water alone has been proven sufficient to achieve clinical hygiene standards. Bacterlon® thus enables a significant reduction in the cleaning agents used while at the same time increasing hygiene. Touching the treated objects poses no danger whatsoever, because neither the coating itself nor the long-term active agents embedded in it can detach from the surfaces.
Safety for customers and staff
In a first step, test surfaces in a store of the European food retailer were coated with Bacterlon®. Those responsible at the retail chain had the relevant areas tested for bacteria using contact plate tests both before and after the treatment. An independent laboratory found that the detectable germ count was not only many times lower after the treatment than before, but that it had even dropped significantly again around six weeks after coating. The long-term effect of Bacterlon® was thus proven once again: thanks to the easy-to-apply coating, bacterial growth was reduced by up to 99%.
Following these positive results, the supermarket chain decided to extend the treatment across large areas of the pilot store: all shopping cart handles, but also portable product scanners, refrigerator handles, touchscreen self-checkout terminals, the fruit and vegetable scale, the PVC butchery door in the staff area, as well as tables, the beverage dispenser and the microwave in the public refreshment area are now coated with the highly effective Bacterlon® protection.
Worth imitating: well-being through safety
This provides not only a significantly higher health standard but also a sense of security for customers and staff, because the supermarket store has equipped all treated surfaces with information notices about the hygiene treatment with Bacterlon®. The increased sense of well-being among customers will most certainly play a relevant role in supermarket choice in the region in the future.
Further information on Bacterlon®: https://www.nanopool.eu/bacterlon/
For further questions about the wide range of possible applications of the NP® protective coating, the company, based in Schwalbach/Germany, will be happy to assist: info@nanopool.eu
About the company:
nanopool® GmbH, based in Hülzweiler, is an innovative family-owned company. Since 2002, it has been among the companies working with nanotechnology in the field of surface refinement.
nanopool® has succeeded in developing a surface refinement for almost every field of application. This innovation will positively change working life in a wide variety of ways.
All nanopool® products are based on the latest scientific findings of nanotechnological research. The effectiveness of the food-safe products, which have won an environmental award, has been tested by recognized research laboratories and confirmed by certificates.
Press contact:
info@nanopool.eu