How ATP testing can help keep food handling areas safe
When it comes to food safety, there are a myriad of tests that can be carried out to check for harmful substances, contaminants, and microbes. One such test is so effective and intuitive that it has spread from a focus in the food industry to other industries as well.
ATP testing is a fantastic method of testing the hygiene of food and preparation surfaces. With some simple and affordable equipment, an ATP test can be carried out by anybody, and the results can be interpreted based upon your respective cleanliness standards.
What is ATP testing?
ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate, which is an organic compound that provides energy for living things. This energy-storing molecule can be detected with the help of a luminometer, and its presence on a surface can indicate how dense the presence of microorganisms is.
ATP reacts with a kind of enzyme called luciferase, one type of which — known as firefly luciferase — is responsible for creating bioluminescence in certain insects. This reaction produces light that can be detected by a luminometer, a simple device that measures light far more accurately and acutely than the human eye can.
The amount of light produced in this reaction is directly proportional to the number of microorganisms present in the sample — the brighter the reading, the more bacteria, fungi, and other microbes that are present.
ATP testing uses a swab to collect particulate from a surface, which is then analysed by a machine. There are various machines that can perform an ATP analysis and they do so with very high speeds.
There are two types of ATP that can be detected through testing: intracellular and extracellular. Intracellular ATP is contained within living organisms, whereas extracellular has been released either through death or other causes.
What do ATP tests show?
An ATP test is looking for the presence of ATP, and therefore the presence of living (or once living) organisms. ATP testing will only reveal the presence of ATP itself and will not give a rundown of which specific organisms are contributing to the current concentration.
As such, ATP tests are incredibly useful for detecting general microbial presence, but not so good at delivering specific information. ATP testing alone will be enough for some contexts, but other industries may require it as one layer of a more complex hygiene and quality assurance system.
ATP tests do not reveal the presence of viruses, something that will no doubt be more significant a consideration than it was in pre-pandemic cleaning routines. Viruses cannot produce ATP, so an ATP test returning a clean result does not confirm the presence or absence of viruses.
ATP tests can reveal the presence of food residues, which is important due to the safe zones and breeding grounds they can present for microorganisms.
Benefits of using ATP testing to check cleaning
Visually inspecting an area for cleanliness is inherently flawed and cannot detect the presence of microorganisms. Even if high-strength cleaning products have been used, it cannot be safely assumed that all microbes have been eliminated.
The nature of an ATP test means that it can be safely trusted in its results. The ATP must react with the enzymes used to create light, so a false positive is highly unlikely to happen as the test must detect the trace amounts of bioluminescence necessary to generate its results.
ATP testing is fast and efficient, meaning quick verification of cleanliness can take place without significant disruption to cleaning workflows. It also means that the hygiene of one area can be confirmed before moving on to another, and areas for improvement can be established if one zone is consistently less hygienic that others.
This can feed back into quality assurance practices and inform adaptive cleaning practices, such as paying extra attention to the cleaning of certain areas or eliminating sources of contamination altogether.
Additionally, by introducing ATP testing into cleaning schedules, the results of an ATP test can present a new metric by which to judge the cleanliness of an area beyond visual inspections.
Who can benefit from ATP testing?
Businesses in many industries can benefit from ATP testing, though the most common to employ ATP tests is those tied to food and hospitality.
Food producers can benefit from tests by ensuring that equipment and workstations are safe and sanitary to use. For companies mass producing food products for widespread consumer purchase, there is much to gain as breaches of health and safety can have all sorts of undesirable consequences.
Costly recalls, fines and penalties, and the erosion of consumer trust resulting from scandals are just some of the risks that businesses face by not ensuring strong hygiene practices. In 2018, supplier Russell Hume collapsed into administration just weeks after facing backlash over its own poor hygiene practices.
Those in hospitality can also benefit from adopting ATP testing. This not only gives the business and stakeholders the assurance that good hygiene practices are in place, but it also signals a strong willingness to abide by cleanliness, which can be integral to improving and maintaining Food Hygiene Ratings.
Other environments such as healthcare, where the presence of certain bacteria can have long-reaching effects, can benefit from the speed and accuracy of regular ATP tests.
How do we establish a robust baseline that determines what is clean (pass) and what is not (fail)?
ATP tests produce an objective result in the form of RLU (relative light units). The amount of acceptable RLU and therefore the concentration of present biofilm will have different ‘acceptable’ thresholds depending on the context of environment being tested.
With the help of an expert supplier, a reasonable RLU threshold can be established and used for all cleaning practices moving forwards.
Calibre Control is one such supplier that can offer expertise and guidance with your ATP testing. Contact us today to learn more about the Charm FieldSwab ATP Hygiene Test and how to incorporate ATP tests in your own work environment.