Natural active ingredients such as chitosan, extracts or oils made out of cinnamon, carvacrol, nisin, thymol etc., have been intensively researched as pure substances for several years due to their ability to act against microorganisms [1–5]. However, the focus is on the understanding of the respective mechanisms of antimicrobial activity as well as on the analysis of the quality of efficacy depending on the molecular structure and various modifications thereof [6, 7]. Due to the valuable statements regarding a possible efficacy, they are of special interest for antimicrobial applications for industrial solutions. The research is being carried out on several film solutions for cutted food using for example chitosan in order to enable a longer shelf life during storage or transport [8, 9].

These layered film solutions offer further technical applications through transfer to other industrial approaches. The challenge is to successfully integrate these natural active ingredients into an existing coating matrix, whereby the antimicrobial effect of the coating should ideally remain identical compared to the effect of the pure substances.

The oral poster presentation will discuss initial models with the focus on which natural raw materials can be used as antimicrobial additives and how they can be integrated into a coating to create an antimicrobial coating solution. The aim of the investigation is to verify several models of an antimicrobial coating by using natural raw materials as active ingredient e. g. figure 1. The results should give a first indication of the possibilities and limitations of these coating models.