4 replies to this topic

[dfwdilemma]

HI all,

I was asked to do some baseline APC surface testing. The testing is for zone 1 on items that have been cleaned but not sanitized.

Does this sound correct? What is the purpose in testing for APC before sanitizing?

[FurFarmandFork]

 ATP tests for residues of organisms and other soils that flag ATP detection.

 

Before you do any sort of experimental design for sanitation validation, you need to know why you're testing and what you want the data to tell you, not the other way around.

 

If you want to verify your sanitation procedures are effective, and you're set on using ATP, I would swab prior to ANY cleaning, then swab again after both cleaning and sanitizing per your procedures to see the drop associated.

 

So #1, why are you collecting the data and for what purpose, then we can help advise on a procedure that may give you some helpful data. Also helpful to tell us what kind of ATP testing method you're using (e.g. the brand name of the tester).

[Ryan H.]

Great explanation FFF.

[dfwdilemma]

Thanks for the reply. To be clear, this is for APC surface testing. We already have an ATP program in place.

The baseline APC surface is being done in conjunction with APC air plates. We are testing before, during, and after operation. The purpose is to get some baseline data to better understand potential spikes.

I’m not sure why I was asked to do APC surface before the sanitizer is applied.

[FurFarmandFork]

Thanks for the reply. To be clear, this is for APC surface testing. We already have an ATP program in place.

The baseline APC surface is being done in conjunction with APC air plates. We are testing before, during, and after operation. The purpose is to get some baseline data to better understand potential spikes.

I’m not sure why I was asked to do APC surface before the sanitizer is applied.

 

 

Hi dfwdilemma, I'm so sorry, my brain read ATP and I was definitely confused.

 

Presumably you would collect baseline microbial counts prior to applying sanitizer in order to determine how effective the sanitizer is at destroying organisms. E.g. if you wanted to validated a 3 log reduction in normal use then you need to swab before use, then swab after sanitizing to determine what the reduction was.

 

Unfortunately, this won't likely provide meaningful data as the number of organisms present after washing/rinsing are hopefully already pretty low, and quantitative micro has huge margins of error and relies on a bunch of datapoints to be meaningful, or at minimum very high loads so that results are visible and not all near the limit of detection.

 

There could be some benefit in seeing what your surface microbial load looks like throughout your produciton/sanitation cycle. But again I would be hesitant to have that be any sort of validation data unless you have a lot of it.