ATP Testing Overview

ATP testing is a quick and reliable method for verifying cleaning techniques and safeguarding the microbial quality of your facility and products. By following a comprehensive ATP testing guide, you can effectively assess cleaning techniques and identify areas of microbial risk.

Understanding ATP

ATP Testing Best Practices

Understanding how ATP technology will work within a larger program is vital when utilizing an ATP testing device.

The ATP Testing Process

The ATP test works by swabbing a surface to pick up any ATP on the swab. The swab is then activated with the luciferase enzyme contained in the test vial and inserted into a luminometer. Any ATP present on the swab will react with the enzyme and begin to produce light. A luminometer then measures the amount of light produced and reports it as relative light units (RLUs). By designating a specific RLU threshold, you can easily measure whether a surface meets your sanitation criteria and whether it is ready for use, needs recleaning, or needs to be studied for route cause of failure.

The testing process for receiving an ATP value reading is simple. You will need a designated ATP testing swab and a compatible luminometer. Keeping these materials readily available at all relevant testing sites will enhance convenience for your staff.

1. Clean the surface: Before you test for ATP, visually clean the surface you plan to verify. ATP tests can tell you whether the visually clean surface is biologically clean and help you understand if your cleaning methods are effective.
2. Swab the area: Use your ATP testing swab to gather a sample from your cleaned surface. Apply pressure to the swab as you run it along the clean surface and rotate to collect sample material along all sides.
3. Insert swab into the luminometer: Follow manufacturer instructions for placing the swab in the tube. Some tubes may already have a reactant inside. Others may require you to snap the tube to release the detection agent. Typically, you will need to shake the tube to initiate the reaction.
4. Read results with a luminometer: The luminometer is critical to your ATP testing because it will read ATP values on your testing surface. Your swab tube should fit in the luminometer and provide results in seconds.

Considerations for Testing

While the testing process is straightforward, it’s vital to understand the specific testing conditions and how to use your test results. ATP testing provides a value for cleaning verification, but there are a few additional considerations to ensure comprehensive risk mitigation in your facility.

• Measurement values: A luminometer will measure ATP by accounting for the level of bioluminescence in a sample. You’ll receive a quantitative measure in RLUs. This measure is a good indication of the presence of ATP and surface cleanliness, in turn. However, RLUs do not necessarily correlate with colony-forming units (CFUs), a unit of measure gauging unsafe levels of bacteria and fungi. For simplicity during testing, you can set a specific threshold for easy pass/fail readings.
• Setting a baseline: Many regulatory bodies define safety levels in CFUs, so you’ll need to determine a safe baseline in RLUs. Every facility and surface will have different standards for a passing and failing RLU value. Your test equipment provider may be able to provide insight based on your industry. Repeated testing over a long period can help you determine what a standard value is for a surface. Your luminometer may also provide helpful data for generating a baseline.
• Testing times: The recommendation for ATP testing is after cleaning and before sanitization, as some test kits may interact with sanitizers and deliver inaccurate results. If you choose to test after sanitizing, you will want to verify if it affects the final reading in the luminometer.
• Other testing types: You may choose to use ATP testing in addition to other testing types for a comprehensive analysis of surface safety. Microbial testing systems work well alongside ATP tests to provide more detail about what kinds of microorganisms are present. It’s also important to note that ATP measurements do not account for the presence of viruses.
• Biofilm: Microorganisms can create a sticky layer to protect themselves. Biofilms can make it harder to sanitize a surface. Your swabbing device should be capable of breaking through these biofilms to get accurate readings.

Benefits of ATP Testing

Introducing regular ATP testing at your business can offer many advantages.

Meet Regulations and Policies

Many organizations must adhere to specific regulations and standards about the cleanliness of their facilities. ATP testing becomes a valuable tool in ensuring compliance with guidelines and demonstrating a commitment to hygiene. This objective testing measure can help you create clear records that back up the efficacy of your sanitation procedures.

Increase Accuracy

An ATP test assesses the cleanliness of the surface beyond what the eye can see, making it a more accurate method for verifying cleanliness. These tests provide objective information about ATP levels so users can clearly gauge when cleaning methods are effective and if they need to modify their techniques. ATP testing can also detect food product residues that are challenging to detect with visual inspections. These residues can leave nutrients that help organisms grow and spread. Addressing these nutrients at the source can mitigate organism growth.

Improve Efficiency

You can complete an ATP test in a matter of seconds, making this method a proactive step before any critical contact and an efficient verification solution for your sanitation processes. Time constraints can limit sanitation verification when operations have tight deadlines making those longer test results retrospective, but ATP testing can eliminate this issue. With a fast swab and reading, staff members can easily and efficiently integrate testing into their cleaning routines and remediate if needed. 

Avoid Outbreaks

ATP testing can be a valuable investment for your organization. With the accuracy of these tests, your staff can catch sanitation issues before they become unmanageable. The costs associated with outbreaks include medical treatment for affected individuals, diminished productivity, obligatory reporting, business losses stemming from a decline in trust, and more. Implementing ATP testing in your facility can help you catch cleanliness problems before they reach the public.

This prevention can apply to food and beverage, hospitality, cosmetics, healthcare, and other industries.

Demonstrate Commitment to Quality

With heightened concerns over sanitation, consumers and business partners want to know how brands and companies implement quality control in food production, schools, hospitals, and hotels. You can assure your customers about their safety with ATP testing. With objective validation of cleanliness, all individuals involved with your company can trust your sanitation techniques. This demonstrated commitment to quality can improve your brand identity and build trust with your customers, buyers, and suppliers. A solid reputation can lead to a more successful business in the long term.

Tips for Keeping Your Facility Clean

While integrating ATP testing into your workflow can verify cleaning processes, there are many methods you can use to ensure your facility’s sanitation stays up to standard.

Establish a Routine

Creating a defined cleaning routine ensures your staff methodically cleans every surface that needs it. Your routine can include times of day for cleaning, processes for testing post-cleaning, and testing requirements for each process. Developing these routines can also help your staff complete cleaning responsibilities more efficiently. Consider creating a master document for cleaning routines throughout the facility to reference during training. You can also create separate documents for different hygiene areas to break down the routine in each zone.

Track and Trend the Results

Review results. Require retests and passing results whenever a test site fails to meets its RLU cut-off. Track repeat failing sites and determine the cause of failure by creating Corrective and Preventative Actions (CAPA). Create vector sites around repeat failures to help improve cleaning and determine the root cause of problems.

Assess the Risks

When teaching staff members about cleaning techniques, emphasize the importance of inspecting the area before cleaning. This initial inspection is essential for identifying any risks in the area and addressing hazards before cleaning starts. Janitorial services, in particular, may face spills that pose safety risks. Another notable risk is the harsh chemical compounds in certain cleaning products. If your staff handles cleaning products, they should know the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) to wear, like rubber gloves.

Organize Your Facility

Keeping your cleaning supplies organized will support efficiency during cleaning processes and help staff members use the right tools and materials according to your cleaning routine. For example, if you integrate ATP testing into your routine, employees should be familiar with the location of test swabs and available luminometers for testing. Clearly label all cleaning products, materials, and tools in closets and other storage areas for easy access.

Conduct Site Inspections

Scheduling site inspections can help teams gauge their cleaning performance over time. Consider conducting these inspections once a month to assess the state of your facility. You may incorporate ATP testing into this process to verify the thoroughness of your cleaning processes. Notate poorly cleaned areas so you can modify your routine and retrain staff as needed.

Charm Sciences ATP Tests

Charm Sciences offers ATP testing kits to organizations across industries that prioritize cleanliness and safety. Our ATP tests feature the PocketSwab Plus ATP Test — a self-contained, single-service swab designed for surface sanitation verification.

These swabs are pre-moistened with a special breaking agent to address the challenges of biofilm in ATP detection. The swab also features a patented thread design for consistent results from user to user and can be used on both wet and dry surfaces. Its foam swab is better at picking up samples than other swabs. PocketSwab Plus ATP test uses a microtube to break through microbial cells and sanitizers to read ATP accurately. Once you’ve attached a swab to our luminometer, you get results in just 5 seconds.

Use these ATP swab kits with the novaLUM II-X system, a luminometer that uses a photomultiplier tube to provide more accurate RLU detection than other sensors. This luminometer provides easy swab insertion and many features to support your quality management system (QMS). The system’s touchscreen offers a user-friendly interface, and the battery has a 9-hour run time.

With novaLUM II-X, you gain access to valuable analytics related to pass/fail rates, all while maintaining protective measures for data security. The novaLUM II-X system directly communicates with eBacMap Data Mapping & Trending Software to simply your tracking and trending. Data mapping, scheduling, and CAPA are all in a simple-to-understand application.

Apply data from the novaLUM II-X system to create customizable reports based on your organization’s needs. Program the system based on the swab site, facility layout, shift periods, and more. With a factory default of 0, you can get the most accurate reading possible and set a high standard for cleanliness. 

Trust Charm Sciences for ATP Testing Kits

At Charm Sciences, our ATP swab kits and luminometers offer speed, simplicity, and sensitivity to verify cleaning processes. Our luminometer uses a photomultiplier tube to provide more accurate RLU detection than other sensors. The biofilm-breaking agent on our swabs has a unique characteristic that is unlike other products on the market to give you the most accurate reading possible. And our eBacMap Data Mapping & Trending software is an innovative way to view our data trends with trend rings, time-lapse video, and 3D 360 view.

Beyond ATP testing, we support testing for microbial detection, allergens, mycotoxins, antibiotics, and more. To learn more about Charm Sciences and our products, contact us today.

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe.

The Devil is in the Details of Sanitation Verification

What part of your facility will invariably give you a migraine?

Sanitation verification is a vast subject, and there is a multitude of options. You can verify the effectiveness by using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) swabs, environmental swabs, aseptic samples of in-process product, or by testing your final product after packaging. The severity of results will determine the required actions ranging from re-cleaning to destroying an entire lot.

Over the years, plants have told us that they have one or two specific locations that give management heartburn. Think of those locations that continually have burnt-on food, gummed up chocolate, or areas the cleaning crew never cleans effectively. We were once even told that the Homogenizer was leaking back into the Aseptic Line. The frustration compounds when you cannot get capital funding to replace or retool the location.  

So, what are you supposed to do?

The answer is simple: increase your ATP testing around the location and glean insights into controlling the specific problem. Instead of worrying about the entire plant, focus your effort on the problem area.  

ATP testing is the silver bullet of sanitation verification. Most plants will swab in predetermined locations that cover the entire plant. However, if you have a problem area, that location needs to have its own swabbing scheme. Break the location down into smaller zones and zero in on the actual problem. With a concentrated swabbing scheme, you can assess the sanitation cycle on a nuanced level. These detailed results will give you incredible insight into the effects of the area downstream, the impact of current sanitation applications, and how it could be modified or applied to specific mechanical changes that might be much less expensive than a location overhaul.  

How Can Charm Help?

When mixed with your environmental monitoring program, our PocketSwab Plus ATP tests will give you detailed information that is actionable. That actionable data allows you to control the problem instead of the problem controlling you. With a concentrated effort, you might find out that the issue plaguing you is actually a simple fix.

Contact us today to learn more about how Charm Sciences’ sanitation verification can help you get the detailed results that you need.

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe.

Environmental Monitoring Program

More food facilities are creating and upgrading their environmental monitoring programs (EMP) due to an increasing emphasis from government agencies on locating and controlling food hazards and contaminants. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) changed the nation’s food safety system by altering the focus from responding to foodborne illness to preventing it. Congress enacted FSMA as a response to the realization that foodborne illness is both a significant public health problem and a severe threat to our food system’s economic well-being.

For food manufacturers, the routine applications of good sanitation practices can control microorganisms inside the food processing and handling environments. However, if contamination levels are high or sanitation procedures are inadequate, these microorganisms may grow and contaminate food products leading to a foodborne illness outbreak.

This article covers how to build and execute an EMP, when to conduct microbial and ATP testing, and enumerates the advantages of in-house environmental testing over third-party testing.

What Does an Environmental Monitoring Program Involve?

Traditionally, an EMP involves assessing the environment’s hygienic practices and the effectiveness of microbial controls. The principle building blocks of surface assessment include visual inspection, ATP testing, indicator microbial testing, and pathogen testing. In addition, it involves testing zones 1, 2, 3, and 4, outlined in more detail below. Results are then analyzed, which may prompt the initiation of appropriate corrective actions, including recleaning, resanitizing, and retraining. Finally, manufacturers document all actions and data is tracked, sometimes by use of a LIMS program.

Structure food contact zones according to their proximity to food.

Zone 1: Direct product contact surfaces. Examples are conveyors/buckets, utensils, employee hands, slicers/pitters, and hoppers/bins/bin liners/fillers.

Zone 2: Non-product contact sites adjacent to Zone 1. Examples are equipment framework, drip shields/housing/control panels/buttons, pipes over Zone 1, computer screens, and maintenance tools.

Zone 3: Non-product contact sites adjacent to Zone 2. Examples are floors/walls/ceilings, hoses/air handling units, drains, foot mats/baths, forklifts, brooms/mops, and pallets.

Zone 4: Areas remote to Zone 1. Examples are locker/break rooms/offices, warehouses/freezers/cold storage, restrooms, loading docks, and maintenance shop.

An EMP bases the frequency of taking samples on regulation, risk, and industry best practices.

An EMP :

• Acts as an early warning system for microbiological hazards in both the production and post-production environment. When well-developed and effectively implemented, an EMP is an integral component of prerequisite programs.
• Helps to identify harborage niches and hot spots in a plant that may act as a source of contamination.
• Validates the sanitation program and helps in determining the frequency required for cleaning and sanitation.

When to Conduct ATP Testing?

Product residue, microbes, and all other organic substances contain adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Effective cleaning and sanitation help eliminate ATP from the food contact surfaces and food plant environment. A positive ATP test reveals an unclean surface. It is important to visually inspect a surface prior to ATP testing to confirm no visible residues. Visual inspection before swabbing can save on swab costs and corrective action time.

The recommended times for ATP testing are:

• Test after cleaning the environment to provide valuable information related to removing filth and reducing risk.

• Test during vectoring to determine the root cause of elevated microbial counts.

While ATP testing cannot provide information about the types of contaminants present on a surface, it is a fast, low-cost, and effective verification of cleaning and sanitation.

When to do Microbial Testing?

The next layer of environmental monitoring is microbial testing. Contrary to ATP testing, microbial testing, which includes both indicator organism and pathogen testing, should occur at the filthiest time of the week or day. The dirtiest time is customarily mid-production or right before shutdown for cleaning and sanitation. Microbial testing should also target sites where microbial contaminants are more likely to be found, such as in rough surfaces and crevices.

Indicator Organism Testing

Indicator organism testing is used to detect and monitor food safety and quality risks and includes the detection of spoilage organisms. Spoilage organisms, such as yeasts and molds, can contaminate air vents and HVAC systems and enter manufacturing areas. This is a major reason for air sampling in food plants. Spoilage organisms, including yeasts and molds, lactobacilli, and other spore-forming bacteria, can also be found in food products. These contaminants can cause off-odors and flavors and may produce gas, leading to shortened shelf life and reduced product quality.

Indicator organisms are a monitoring tool employed to measure the possible presence of difficult-to-detect pathogenic organisms. Indicator organisms survive under similar nutrient, chemical, and physical conditions of related pathogens, so their presence can offer information about the risk of pathogens in the environment. Food manufacturers may perform these tests in-house or send the samples to a 3rd party lab for evaluation. However, 3rd party lab testing increases the time to test results and adds to the environmental monitoring budget—the more robust the program, the greater the cost. Therefore, bringing these tests in-house can provide faster results and alleviate the additional cost of the 3rd party lab.

Enterobacteriaceae is the most recommended microbial indicator for usage. This bacterial group includes coliforms, E. coli, and other gram-negative organisms, including pathogens like Salmonella. These are heat-sensitive bacteria, so when found in post-heat processing areas, it indicates a breakdown in the controls to prevent post-process contamination.

Aerobic count (AC) and aerobic plate count (APC) provide a generic count of the total number of bacteria in a sample. Manufacturers frequently employ AC and APC because of the advantages of quick results and lower costs.  Aerobic bacteria can lead to shortened shelf life and off-odors.  Aerobe testing does not detect yeast, mold, Campylobacter, or other strictly anaerobic bacteria. 

Food manufacturers may also test for indicator organism groups, such as staphylococci, pseudomonas, or enterococci, depending on their products and specific risks associated with those food items.

Times for initiating additional microbial indicator testing include:

• Following the discovery of a contaminant in a product sample.
• Following the observance of an increase in indicator organisms.
• Following an indication that there is a distinct possibility of microbial contaminants being present.
• Increased quality issues with shelf-life or spoilage

Pathogen Testing

In-house technicians collect pathogen test samples, and plants typically employ 3rd party laboratories to test samples for Salmonella and Listeria detection. Other pathogens may be tested, such as Chronobacter sakazakii, in an infant food production environment if the product is susceptible to specific pathogens and the risk factors warrant additional testing. All types of Salmonella are pathogenic. Salmonella, linked to milk, poultry, eggs, flour, vegetables, spices, and nuts, is often found in low and high moisture areas, in areas with pest activity, and within air intakes. 

Listeria monocytogenes is the only known pathogen within the Listeria genus. Therefore, authorities recommend only testing for Listeria spp. and assume it is Listeria monocytogenes. It is usually associated with cheese, raw vegetables, and ice. Listeria is typically located in cool or wet environments and drains.

Advantages of In-House Environmental Monitoring with Microbial Testing and ATP Testing

For microbial evaluations, indicator and spoilage organisms tested in-house provide faster results which are as accurate as 3rd party testing. There is a reduced risk associated with in-house testing because the plant can catch problems more quickly and immediately implement corrective actions. Sending samples to a 3rd party lab can delay discovering contaminants that enable pathogens to infect more products. In-house microbial testing does not require significant capital investments, and it is not necessary to hire lab technicians with advanced biology degrees.

Regarding ATP testing, rapid tests are available that provide results within seconds. They produce data in real-time and are relatively simple, effective, sensitive, and quantitative. In addition, ATP bioluminescence systems provide computerized data logging, portability, and visual readouts of ATP levels in Relative Light Units, of RLUs. In terms of cost, plants will see savings resulting from improvements in the cleaning with better quality, improved shelf life, and less time needed for managing the cleaning process and crew.

Conclusion

A robust Environmental Monitoring Program ultimately affects the overall safety and quality of manufactured products by efficiently applying ATP testing and indicator organism testing to drive a clean environment that will inhibit pathogen growth.

Charm Sciences fully understands the critical importance of having an effective environmental monitoring program. We use a philosophy of prevention while providing the tools to monitor facility sanitation and hygiene (ATP), spoilage organisms, and indicator organisms. Contact us today to learn how to employ a preventative strategy to protect your brands from premature spoilage and recalls using environmental sampling in conjunction with microbial indicator testing.  

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe.

How Often Do You See Random Microbial Spikes?  

A random microbial spike has just occurred on your finished product. The root cause investigation shows that nothing has changed in your sanitation process, there has not been any personnel turnover, and nothing has changed in the process. In addition, the ingredients are the same. All the raw sample data came back within specification and in normal ranges, and you are baffled. Invariably, the microbial spike kicks off a barrage of finger-pointing, corrective actions, and general dismay by upper management.

As soon as it appeared, the microbial spike goes away, making verification of the actions impossible.  

We have a saying, “Bacteria are like small children, they kind of do what they want.” It takes one bacterium to lodge in a crack the size of a human hair, and it can begin to divide exponentially. Under ideal conditions, many types of bacteria can double every 20 minutes. Potentially, one bacterium can multiply to more than 30,000 in five hours and more than 16 million in eight hours. If these bacteria then create a biofilm, standard sanitation chemicals may not remove it. You will need to either purchase a blow torch or start using an enzymatic biofilm busting chemical to dislodge it.  

This situation leaves you with two solutions.

1.Do nothing and hope that the random spikes do not show up again. Perhaps there is a loss of a batch or lot once in a great while, or a little worse, someone may get sick. As long as the public doesn’t find out and upper management isn’t overly concerned, you can try to play the odds.  

OR

2.Proactively control the process from beginning to end by understanding the three main tenants of process monitoring. These tenants are to have an Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) monitoring program, sample aseptically at all times, and have a micro sampling and culturing program.

ATP Program

A robust ATP testing program applied after every clean-in-place (CIP) and sanitizing will verify the efficiency of your sanitation activities. Ideally, you will be using highly sensitive tools with a pass/fail indicator for quick and easy decision-making after each cleaning cycle. If you are not following up with immediate corrective actions to failures, you are simply checking a box. Checking a box will lead you to play the odds but not help control the sanitation process. Instead, swab the entire processing line from beginning to end after each sanitation cycle and act where necessary.

Sampling aseptically from the raw to finished goods and throughout the process is a no-brainer. 

If you sample your product or the environment, what is the point if you cannot hang your hat on the results? Sample aseptically for indicator organisms in your raw to finished product at the beginning, middle, and end of the run. Use the zoning approach on the product contact and environmental surfaces. 

Microbiological Environmental Program

An effective microbiological environmental program includes testing for pathogens and indicator organisms such as Coliforms and Enterobacteriaceae. Then, compile the results from these analyses into a format that provides an easy understanding and interpretation of trend data.

Many facilities send their microbial swabs out to be analyzed by 3rd party labs. So if you are not testing in-house, you may be taking on additional risks.

The cost of setting up a small lab to conduct sanitation and environmental microbial monitoring is minimal, and the information you receive is invaluable. With a small incubator, some pipettes, and a bag of Peel Plate Microbial Tests, you can test indicator organisms, such as Aerobic Bacteria (AC), Coliforms (CC), Enterobacteriaceae (EB), and E. coli (EC).

According to FDA, the four elements of a microbiological environmental monitoring program are:

Air Monitoring:
Microbiological air monitoring is critical since what falls out of the air can fall onto the product and food-contact surfaces. Collect weekly air-monitoring samples with air impingement total microbial counts (fungi and bacteria) having an acceptable limit of <250 colony forming units (CFU) per 15-minute exposure.

Pre-Operational:
This type of microbiological monitoring is the verification of proper cleaning and sanitizing of food-processing equipment. Total microbial counts are the typical analysis used with an acceptable limit of <100 CFU per sponge.

In-Process:
This is a common program for food-plant verification of microbial control. Use Enterobacteriaceae as the indicator of appropriate microbiological control. A specification (acceptable limit) of <100 CFU per sponge is typical, but this can be as high as <1,000 CFU per sponge. Both food contact and non-food contact surfaces are included as sampling sites.

Pathogen:
This is an essential program. Common target species for many food plants are Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli.

The price to implement these actions is a fraction of the cost the company could lose through a product recall, lawsuit, or FDA/USDA fine. 

How Charm Can Help

If you are tired of chasing random microbial spikes and want to sleep better at night, reach out and we can chat about how to improve your monitoring program.

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe.

Are All ATP Luminometers Created Equal?

I have a question for you.

Do you feel like your ATP sanitation verification program is adding value to your product quality and sanitation procedure? If your answer is ‘we consistently get low relative light units (RLU), but we have elevated bacteria counts’ putting product on hold/consumer complaints, or ‘our RLU’s are low, but we have problems with the product making it to our end of code targets, then the answer is a resounding NO!

A robust ATP sanitation verification program is only as good as the tools used to monitor the program.

What is ATP?

As a quick refresher, all organic matter (food products, skin cells, and microbes) has some level of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is the energy currency of all living cells, used to power the cell’s metabolic, cellular, and replication processes. A robust ATP sanitation verification program is looking for this molecule as it provides the nutrients for microbial survival if present and is an excellent indicator of sanitation effectiveness. It’s simple, the higher the number, the higher organic matter on the surface and the dirtier the surface. 

Does this Sound Like Your ATP Sanitation Verification Program?

Although ATP RLU counts do not equate directly to microbial CFU (colony forming units), ATP used for sanitation verification helps identify unclean surfaces in 5 seconds. ATP testing initiates recleaning in real-time to help reduce the potential for microbial build-up on production lines that could impact food quality, spoilage, or worse, the risk of a recall due to ineffective sanitation practices. Further, the ATP needs to be interpreted by a luminometer that detects light. Different bacteria have varying cell wall thicknesses. When the swab chemistry cannot “break” microbial cell walls to release the ATP, coupled with a luminometer using a small photodiode, it cannot see the light to identify the surface as dirty. This causes you to get passing results providing a false sense of security that your sanitation verification program is effective.

Add Significant Value to Your Sanitation Verification Program

Choose an ATP test that utilizes a lysing agent in the swab to break the bacterial cell wall open, thus releasing the ATP to be analyzed. And use a luminometer with a light-magnifying photomultiplier to collect the actual RLU value. Selecting a quality luminometer and tests is the only way to understand if sanitation procedures are truly effective.

Implementing the next level of ATP analysis will bring your product to the next level of hygiene, mitigate the inherent risks of food safety, and protect your family and children from preventable hazards. It will add consumer confidence to your brand, which thus affects the bottom line in your favor. 

Written By:

Brett Roeller

Territory Account Manager
Charm Sciences, Inc.

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe.

Food Safety in Review

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), foodborne illnesses cause an estimated 600 million people to fall ill each year, which is almost one in every ten people worldwide. They estimate that 420,000 people die each year, with 40% of those being young children under the age of 5. Typical symptoms of foodborne illness are nausea, stomach cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. Young children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems are more at risk.

What Causes Foodborne Illnesses?

The main causes of foodborne diseases are bacteria, viruses, parasites, and toxins that enter the body through contaminated water or food. Here are some of the common culprits:

Bacteria

Some of the main disease-causing bacteria include Salmonella, Campylobacter, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Clostridium botulinum, with the latter three requiring the most hospitalizations.

Last year, an E. coli outbreak in the U.S. caused 167 people to become ill, reaching 27 states. Investigations eventually found that the likely source was from romaine lettuce grown in the Salinas Valley growing region of California. Another outbreak involving E. coli in ground beef caused over 200 people to become ill in a 10-state area.

This year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched investigations in six states for E. coli infections linked to clover sprouts.

In the first quarter of 2020, a listeria outbreak reaching 17 states in the U.S. caused 36 people to become ill, with four deaths. The CDC eventually linked the outbreak to Enoki Mushrooms. Other foods that are affected by listeria outbreaks include cantaloupe, hard-boiled eggs, deli meats and cheeses, pork products, milk, and ice cream.

Viruses

A virus cannot grow in food. It needs a host to replicate. Viruses can use food or water as a method of passing along an infection. Many viral foodborne illnesses cause vomiting and diarrhea. If a food handler is contaminated and not practicing good hygiene, that worker can easily pass along the virus to others. Sewage, animal waste, and infected animals are also causes of contamination.

Viral foodborne illnesses include norovirus, rotavirus, hepatitis A and E. The latter two are contagious liver infections. Common culprits are shellfish (due to sewage contamination), undercooked meats, and produce fertilized with contaminated animal waste.

Parasites

Parasites such as Giardia intestinalis, roundworms such as Trichinella, tapeworms such as Taenia, and trematode worms, also known as flukes, can enter the food chain via water, soil, and contaminated foods. Food handlers who do not practice good hygiene can also pass along parasites.

Foods to look out for are undercooked shellfish, fish, and meat. Contaminated raw produce can also harbor parasites. Symptoms vary depending on the parasite.

Toxins

Toxins can be pollutants, industrial waste, or they can occur naturally. Fungi naturally produce mycotoxins, which can cause birth defects, chronic disease, and even death. See our article Understanding Mycotoxins and Predicting Risk in a Changing Climate for more information on mycotoxins.

Finding the Source of Outbreaks

An outbreak investigation starts with sick people and works backward through the food chain, looking for patterns and clusters that can lead to the point of contamination.

A powerful tool that investigators have been using since 2012 is Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), which looks at a pathogen’s entire genetic makeup. Much like human DNA that can tell us about our ancestry or connect a person to a crime scene, bacteria also have a unique DNA that is traceable.

Investigators in Spain used WGS, which eventually led to a facility that produced pork meat products as the point of contamination for the listeria outbreak.

To aid in making these connections, the FDA is building a publicly accessible international database called the GenomeTrakr. This database has the genetic information for 426,000 pathogens and is adding about 9,000 isolates to its database each month. Also, the CDC’s PulseNet is a national laboratory network that connects foodborne illness cases, using DNA fingerprinting of bacteria, to detect outbreaks.

The Global Food Chain and Regulatory Agencies

Ensuring that our food and animal feed is safe can be a challenge, especially in a global economy where food imports are the norm. Different standards in different countries, trade deals, and Brexit add to the complexity.

The World Health Organization works to help prevent, detect, and manage foodborne risks. On June 7th, the world marked its second World Food Safety Day. It was created by WHO, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), to help educate and inspire action on food safety issues.

In light of the recent corona pandemic and its possible impact on the world’s food supply chain, it is ever important to know the regulatory agencies that govern our food safety.

The United States

The primary agencies responsible for regulating food safety in the U.S. are the FDA, CDC, and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA/FSIS). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services runs the National Toxicology Program. It studies and provides information on potentially hazardous substances, such as BPA, found in our food and water.

In 2011, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) became law. FSMA places emphasis on preventing outbreaks, rather than reacting to outbreaks. Sanitation validation is a requirement set by this law. Our article, Prerequisite to FSMA is Sanitation, takes a detailed look at why sanitation efforts are central to compliance and how these new standards fit with the Food Safety Act.

FSMA requires food growers and processors to have a food safety plan in place that includes an analysis of potential hazards and risk-based preventative controls to minimize or prevent those identified hazards from occurring.

Most U.S. food importers are also responsible and accountable for making sure that foreign foods comply with the FMSA under the Foreign Supplier Verification Program.

Europe

In 2002, the European Parliament passed the General Food Law, where risk assessment (the science) and risk management (the policy) are separate entities.

The risk assessment arm of this law is The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which is funded by the EU and operates independently from the EU Commission, Council, Parliament, and the EU Member States. The EFSA provides independent scientific advice from data gleaned from existing research. EFSA is also responsible for clearly communicating those potential risks to the public.

The European Commission, Member State authorities, and the European Parliament are responsible for the risk management side of food safety. It is their responsibility to create legislation, such as setting reduction targets for salmonella in laying hens, based on information provided by the EFSA.

Asia

High population densities and lenient food safety regulations in many Asian countries prompted the private sector to take on more of a role in Asia. Food Industry Asia (FIA) was created in 2010 so that food and beverage manufacturers could speak with one voice to governments and policymakers to help create a healthy and sustainable food supply.

An opinion poll conducted by FIA found that the cost of regulation and poor enforcement are the most significant barriers to growth in Asia’s food industry. They found that “these issues polled higher than things like access to technology, human resource capability, cost of raw materials, and route to market/poor infrastructure.”

Australia New Zealand

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is an independent statutory agency responsible for developing food standards, mandatory warnings, and advisory labels. One of its charges is to achieve consistency between domestic and international food standards when developing the Food Standards Code.

Top Concerns for Food Manufacturers

No food manufacturer wants an investigation for foodborne illness, let alone an outbreak, on their hands. A lost reputation is hard to win back, and the expense of recalls and lawsuits can be enough to bankrupt a company.

Food Safety Magazine surveyed over 200 food processors worldwide to learn what some of their key projects and priorities were. The main concerns were in pathogen control, and many specifically mentioned listeria, salmonella, and campylobacter. (See our article: The Criticality of Environmental Monitoring as an integral piece of your pathogen control program). Other concerns were meeting FSMA regulatory and audit requirements, as well as third-party verifications.

Many manufacturers are now implementing on-site diagnostic testing to meet these requirements and to prevent foodborne illness outbreaks and investigations

How Charm Can Help

When it comes to food safety, good sanitation and hygiene practices are crucial. Many issues, however, cannot be detected by visual inspection alone, as they are microscopic.

Charm’s ATP-based PocketSwab Plus test makes it easy to monitor cleaning and sanitation practices. In just five seconds, the test can detect biological residue from food and microorganisms, making it possible to fix sanitation deficiencies right away.

Designed and developed for sanitation verification, product shelf-life monitoring, and to be early warning of pathogen risks, Charm Peel Plate Microbial tests are simplified alternatives to conventional microbiological testing. Peel Plates are available for targeting a variety of bacterial indicators to supplement most food safety programs.

Charm can help you avoid the experience of a recall, protect your brand’s reputation, help you pass 3rd party audits, and give consumers confidence in the “brands” manufacturers are making.

About Charm Sciences

Established in 1978 in Greater Boston, Charm Sciences helps protect consumers, manufacturers, and global brands from a variety of issues through the development of food safety, water quality, and environmental diagnostics tests and equipment. Selling directly and through its network of distributors, Charm’s products serve the dairy, feed and grain, food and beverage, water, healthcare, environmental, and industrial markets in more than 100 countries around the globe.

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