Being ill at some point around this time, with the 25,000 charmingly named “excess winter deaths” reported by the Office for National Statistics each year the extreme end of this phenomenon, seems just an unavoidable fact of life.

Or is it? The booming antibacterial wipe and hand sanitiser market would certainly suggest steps can be taken. And in fact an ever-more hygiene-conscious public can now count a previously unlikely ally in the fight against filth: namely print. 

Or rather it’s the antibacterial coatings now being applied to a range of print products, from brochures and leaflets to packaging and magazines. These coatings have been available from certain vendors for a number of years. But only recently has interest really taken off. Now many more consumables suppliers and antibacterial chemical specialists are getting involved, with plans being hatched to apply such coatings to the most widely used and everyday of items.  

The science behind the coatings varies from vendor to vendor. Some consist of a silver-based formula (and are sure to market silver’s prolific history as an antibacterial agent). Others favour alternative forms of biocide. What all these coatings do have in common are strongly stated kill rates. In fact the more accurate term for the products is antimicrobial, with the coatings typically promising to eradicate, over a several-hour or day-long period, up to 99.999% of a wide range of bacteria, viruses and fungi, including E. coli, MRSA and campylobacter.

Of course the proof is in the testing. Lisa Ackerley, leading environmental health practitioner, food safety expert, and commentator on BBC Watchdog and Rogue Restaurants, certainly seems to think there’re plenty of hard facts behind the hype.

“The studies I’ve seen have shown these do make a substantial difference to reducing bacteria levels. Not immediately – it’s not a disinfectant – but over a period of time,” she says, adding: “I’m excited about it. From what I understand of the products I’ve seen, they don’t have any potential for messing with the bacteria in terms of making them resistant. And there don’t seem to be any health issues either.”

The most potentially significant antimicrobial roll-out could be on the new polymer UK banknotes, slated for 2016. Several sources have informed PrintWeek that coating specialists and substrate manufacturers are in talks with the Bank of England. This follows Turkish and Dutch scientists recently finding traces of MRSA still present up to 24 hours after contamination on polymer notes, 21 hours longer than on other types. A blow to the Bank’s hygiene claims regarding polymer notes, the research suggests antibacterial coatings could play a key role here in protecting the nation.

Another application exciting Ackerley, and no doubt many in food hygiene, is improving the safety of raw meat packaging. Featherstone-based Linpac Packaging is one firm currently in talks with a number of major retailers about this. 

“Linpac are the first to market, but certainly others will start getting involved,” says Paul Morris, managing director at Addmaster, the suppliers of the Biomaster product to be used here. “This is going to be a standard thing very quickly because once someone’s done it everyone will have to. I can’t see it ever being a stipulation, but I don’t think one supermarket will have it and another not.”

Supermarkets are facing increased pressure, explains Ackerley, to mitigate against contamination on the outside of raw meat packs, namely from campylobacter bacteria, which causes a reported 60,000 illnesses a year. (Received wisdom states that actual infection rates are around 140 times higher than reported rates.)

Pack progress

While reducing rates of infection at farms and factories is obviously a priority in the government’s drive to reduce campylobacter poisoning by up to 30% by 2015, packaging could also play a vital role.

“A lot of energy is being spent on trying to control campylobacter at the beginning of the food chain, but it has not been very successful so far,” says Ackerley. “Since the government started the campylobacter reduction programme, the numbers of cases of illness have actually increased. Having been so successful reducing salmonella, it must be very disappointing for the government.”

“It’s hard to avoid contamination in the packing plants. It gets onto the outside of packaging very easily so there’s only so much you can do. This is why antibacterial packs could be so useful,” continues Ackerley, adding: “If you think about someone shopping in a supermarket, they touch the packaging to put it in the trolley and then it gets in the trolley, on the trolley handle. More and more people seem to be grazing on snacks all the time and offering food to their children while shopping, so it’s quite possible they could then decide to dive into a pack of crisps and put contamination directly into their mouths.”

“It was always thought with traditional food poisoning that several things had to go wrong to cause the illness, but with things like E. coli and campylobacter, you need very few bacteria – even as few as 10 organisms with E. coli and 500 with campylobacter to get ill,” adds Ackerley.

The outside of meat packs isn’t the only place such a coating could soon be rolled out in supermarkets. ‘Bags for life’ are another key product being considered. This, it’s hoped, will combat issues caused by people using the same bag for raw meat and then, a week later once germs have had time to multiply in a nice dark, warm car boot, say, to carry other produce.

And there’s the possibility these coatings could be used not just on the outside but also inside of packaging. “We have a few drugs and food accreditations to sort out, but once we’ve done that we’ll be working with one of the biggest packaging companies,” reports Derek Adams, development manager at silver-based antimicrobial producer N9. “That’s for the inside and outside of packaging. Bacteria can start growing at surprisingly sub-zero temperatures, but this will prevent that, and so it should give food a longer shelf life.”

Adams predicts that, again, supermarkets will soon be keen to boost their reputations, and bottom lines, with this. “There’s a lot of media attention at the moment on how much food is wasted,” he says. “But if you extend the shelf life of food you have the potential to save supermarkets a massive amount of food that doesn’t have to be thrown out.”

N9 Pure Silver, also sold in the UK by coatings specialist Celloglas, is now also used on some in-flight magazines produced by Ink Publishing, and on consultant directories at Spire Healthcare private hospitals. Adams says this will hopefully go some way to alleviating a situation, as found by a survey commissioned by N9 (see below), in which 86% of respondents worried about picking up germs in public places, and 56% said they’d never pick up used magazines or newspapers.

Shackell Edwards managing director Grant Penfield agrees that magazines and healthcare literature are two key applications. He adds that he’s also seeing strong interest in applying Shackell Edwards-supplied Bioseal to pharmaceutical packaging.

“There’s been a lot of press about magazines in doctors’ surgeries being banned because they carry germs,” he says. “If a magazine has a longer life in the public domain, then advertisers spending money are going to get better value. Some people advertise purely on circulation, so that’ll be worth a lot to advertisers.”

Rob Gros, chief executive at the company behind Bioseal, Chemical Intelligence, adds that antimicrobial coatings will, he feels, one day become standard on all such items. The reason for this finally taking off now even though companies have been making these products for several years, is their now lower cost.

“We designed Bioseal for it to be minimal cost,” reports Gros. “The whole point is that it can be used everywhere and so safe-to-touch print just becomes standard. So applications should be children’s books, archives, medical packaging, food packaging – everywhere.”

As with other antibacterial coatings, Bioseal’s cost is kept down due to being supplied as part of another ink, varnish or coating already being used on that job. “If it’s in an oil-based system the cost per kilo of the raw materials is only slightly more expensive than the material you’re taking out,” reports Penfield. “With a water-based coating that is 60% water and 40% solids, it makes a higher impact. But the cost is still negligible when you consider the function.”

Counting the cost

But despite this, others are less confident these coatings will become quite so ubiquitous. The case for coatings on meat packaging and banknotes seems pretty clear cut. But even a tiny cost added to a print run can seriously put buyers off where the need for an antimicrobial coating is less immediately obvious.

Luton-based Cavendish Printing Inks has been supplying its antimicrobial product IsoTect for three years now (it also sold a similar product of a different name for several years before this) and technical director Nigel Miller reports that, though the product has been used for quite a few non-print applications, such as lacquers for furniture, sprays and wipes, print take-up has been slow.

“We’ve tried to interest a lot of different people in different areas but nobody’s really bitten,” reports Miller. “We’ve spoken to possibly hundreds of different people about the possibility of using it on labels of jars and tins and wall coverings in hospitals for example, but so far we’ve never really gotten any further than trials. Our most successful print application is for soap wrappers to stop mould growing here.”

Print, packaging, security and labels consultant Mike Fairley,  agrees that it’s a Catch-22 situation presently. He agrees that the price point for adding a coating isn’t yet quite low enough for most buyers: “All those technologies are available. But until you get the volumes, the price doesn’t come down. And until the price comes down you don’t get the volumes. So it’s still a bit of a chicken and egg scenario.” 

Addmaster’s Morris agrees that to say antimicrobial coatings will be standard on every single piece of print produced in future could be a bit of an overstatement: “We’re seeing menus becoming a big thing with this – for quality establishments I think it’s going to very much be a must-have. But still there’s always going to be certain people who say ‘we stack it high and sell it cheap, that doesn’t concern us’.”

On the subject of what other types of packaging this might eventually be used for, Morris adds that coating suppliers and printers have a responsibility to roll this out judiciously.

“We’re huge believers in this going where it needs to go. We don’t want to go into the business of producing scare stories,” he says. “Getting some forms of bacteria from low risk areas is good for your immune system. Only where bacteria is very high risk do you need this.”

Morris adds that even where the need is perhaps most high – for print going into hospitals and doctors’ surgeries – the roll-out might not be quite as far-reaching as you’d expect. 

As is the case with N9 Pure Silver, antimicrobial coatings seem to have made most headway in private, as opposed to NHS, healthcare environments. The challenge facing consumables suppliers and printers, reports Morris, is public sector bureaucracy. 

“The NHS is a really difficult sell. We’ve adjusted our focus away from them because of this,” says Morris, explaining: “They put a lot of tenders out to the logistics companies. Then they have regional areas and local buying departments as well. In the area we’re in for example, there’s the local department for buying, but then they’re part of a Staffordshire-wide group who are then part of a Midlands group. There’s not a lot of joined-up thinking. At least in supermarkets, one company makes a decision and 100 stores implement it.”

The jury is out, then, on just how widespread antibacterial, or rather antimicrobial coatings, will eventually be, with answers ranging from ‘very’ to ‘only on some items.’

In light of rumours of banknote and supermarket packaging coatings, it does seem though that interest is steadily increasing, with the lower cost of some of the new coatings cited as a key driver. And even slight sceptics, such as Cavendish Inks’ Miller, admit that more noise in this area from numerous suppliers could eventually mean a tipping point is reached, where the general public is aware enough of the product to start demanding it as standard.

And of course printers considering finding out more shouldn’t perhaps underestimate a growing concern with cleanliness among the great, well, washed. Headlines about campylobacter rates, MRSA infections in hospitals and GP surgeries failing to meet basic standards could pile on the pressure. 

Print could, then, soon be an unlikely aid to public health. In the words of health expert Ackerley, control on packaging could start to provide “an extra piece of armour in the crucial fight against infection.”

N9 Attitudes to Hygiene survey

86% Of respondents worry about picking up germs in public places...

85% Dislike touching things regularly touched by others (chip & pin pads, door handles, etc)...

91% Do not trust others to uphold the same standards of hygiene as they do...

58% Prefer not to pick up in-flight magazines...

65% Of respondents will not touch magazines in their doctor’s waiting room...

56% Will not touch magazines at the hairdresser...

69% Will not pick up a magazine or newspaper that has been left on a train or bus...

56% Never pick up used copies of magazines or newspapers