Study: Not all hygiene monitoring systems produce stable, consistent test results
The study of stability and consistency determined that all ATP systems do not provide the same quality of results.
3M Food Safety, St. Paul, Minn., announced the results of a new scientific study conducted by the ZERO2FIVE Food Industry Centre at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales, UK, comparing the performance of nine ATP hygiene monitoring systems. The research concluded the 3M Clean-Trace Hygiene Monitoring and Management System was the only system to provide stable and consistent results across time and temperature.
Each system tested for the presence of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), an indicator molecule for biological residue that can be found after cleaning and provides an overall measure of cleanliness in production environments. To test the stability of results produced by each system, a known amount of ATP was applied on the swab and read repeatedly over two minutes. The researchers analyzed how the results varied over time, with tests conducted at 10°C, 20°C and 35°C.