Antimicrobial properties of pickled leather treated with zeolite

The quality of leather and its various properties depend on the preparatory work, as well as the tanning and finishing processes. Preparatory operations include soaking, liming, deliming, bating, and acidification (pickling), through which the leather acquires the characteristics necessary for tanning. After the preparatory stages, further treatment is carried out to prevent the growth of microorganisms on the leather surface. The development of microorganisms requires extra washing, which slows the regular leather-processing workflow and increases production costs. In this study, leather samples that had undergone standard factory preparatory procedures - including pickling - were additionally treated with zeolites. This paper describes the preparatory procedures and the process of treating pickled leather with zeolites, with the aiming to achieve improved antimicrobial protection as a more environmentally friendly solution for storing leather prepared in this way. The objective is to determine whether zeolite treatment provides an antimicrobial effect on pickled leather. The antimicrobial activity of the zeolite-treated leather against Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli was tested in accordance with EN ISO 20645:2018. The results obtained from the zeolite-treated leather were compared with those of leather processed through the standard pickling procedure. The antimicrobial effectiveness of the zeolite-treated leather was confirmed.