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I realize all of the disadvantages, but I am wondering if the food industry can actually benefit from the formation of biofilms.

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    $\begingroup$ "In the production of some fermented foods, biofilms are an essential element for optimum production. During the production of vinegar, acetic acid bacteria are allowed to grow on wood chips. The biofilm that is formed helps make the conversion of substrate to acid more efficient." - foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/februarymarch-2005/… $\endgroup$
    – inf3rno
    Commented Nov 23, 2014 at 20:47

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inf3rno's comment provides a great example, in the production of vinegar (Food Safety Magazine):

In the production of some fermented foods, biofilms are an essential element for optimum production. During the production of vinegar, acetic acid bacteria are allowed to grow on wood chips. The biofilm that is formed helps make the conversion of substrate to acid more efficient.

This paper, Biofilms in the Food Environment (Czaczyk & Myszka, 2014) also provides examples of biofilm use in industrial food production (on page 75, 14th page in the linked PDF):

Bioreactors with biofilms (biofilms represent a natural form of cell immobilization) are used to obtain acetic acid, citric acid, ethanol, and polysaccharides.

You can also check out Chapter 7 of this book of the same name, Biofilms in the Food Environment, for more information, if you're interested. It's not available for free online but you may be able to find it in a library.

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