Indoor environmental conditions shape the microbial landscape of food production facilities across space and time

The microbial communities inhabiting food production environments are distinguished from those of other built environments in their capacity to influence food quality and safety, impacting consumer health. However, how indoor environmental conditions drive the bacterial and fungal communities of food production facilities remains largely unknown. In this study of five commercial food production facilities, we employed remote wireless sensors paired with marker-gene amplicon sequencing (bacterial 16S rRNA genes and fungal ITS) of processing equipment and non-processing built environment surfaces (N=2,329) to profile spatial and longitudinal changes in bacterial and fungal communities, and their association with indoor climate. We identify multiple associations between indoor environmental conditions and microbial community structure, demonstrating the role of the indoor environment in shaping microbial communities on food processing and non-processing surfaces. This suggests that indoor climate could be manipulated to rationally modify surface communities, with the aim of enhancing food quality and safety.