Many strategies and chemical regimens have been defined for controlling biofilms. For open surface in food processing for example, biofilm removal is a multiple step process including pre-cleaning by scrapping and rinsing surfaces, washing (detergent), rinsing (to remove dirt and detergent solutions) and sanitizing (to kill attached surviving bacteria and viruses). Closed surfaces such as pipes, tanks or filters require specific equipment such as flooded clean-in-place systems. Flooded systems involve filling all the pipes with successively water, chlorine, biocide, caustic or other chemicals. Other applications use continuous biocide injection procedures to prevent biofilm growth.

Clean-In-Place (CIP) systems are automatic cleaning system integrated into the machine during its design. A major advantage is that it does not require any system disassembling to operate. The tanks and pipes are cleaned using a parallel fluid circuit. In automated machines, cycles and programs are integrated from the construction. With this system, it is possible to inject the cleaning solution to drain a pipe, but also to include an air- or water-pushed shuttle that scrapes the inner wall of the pipe. In this case, the shuttle is introduced by a parallel circuit or by an aperture in the main pipe. Implementation of an automated CIP system in an existing industrial plant leads to additional costs but is possible (see Packo Inox NV ).

around 500€/m³ of solution in the case of a CIP use (telephone meeting with the R&D department head of Realco), including the analysis to check the cleaning effectiveness. Realco presents its product as a biofilm destroyer but also as a preventive treatment. This solution is expected to have a lower impact on the environment, with limited release of detergent and total biodegradability, but requires to be used at 50°C to be effective (INRA website recommendation).
Another solution to avoid or limit chemicals use, is to prevent the colonization of pathogenic biofilms by spraying a positive bacterial biofilm on surfaces. For example, the Cobiotex® 112 product , based on a bacterial strain of Bacillus subtilis, is used to limit the development of flora contamination in poultry breeding, and enables animals to evolve in a bio securised area. An other example is the use of Bacillus strains on tomato seeds which promotes a better growth of the crops.