Milk Protein Adsorption on Metallic Iron Surfaces

Food processing and consumption involves multiple contacts between biological fluids and solid materials of processing devices, of which steel is one of the most common. Due to the complexity of these interactions, it is difficult to identify the main control factors in the formation of undesirable deposits on the device surfaces that may affect safety and efficiency of the processes. Mechanistic understanding of biomolecule–metal interactions involving food proteins could improve management of these pertinent industrial processes and consumer safety in the food industry and beyond. In this work, we perform a multiscale study of the formation of protein corona on iron surfaces and nanoparticles in contact with cow milk proteins. By calculating the binding energies of proteins with the substrate, we quantify the adsorption strength and rank proteins by the adsorption affinity. We use a multiscale method involving all-atom and coarse-grained simulations based on generated ab initio three-dimensional structures of milk proteins for this purpose. Finally, using the adsorption energy results, we predict the composition of protein corona on iron curved and flat surfaces via a competitive adsorption model.