Sanitation Monitoring of Stainless Steel  Surfaces with a Test for Total Adenylates

ATP rapid hygiene monitoring tests are useful for the implementation of hazard analysis critical control point systems and hazard analysis risk-based preventive controls programs. The removal of food residues on surfaces after washing is essential because these residues can promote microbial growth and present a risk for contamination of foods with allergens. However, conventional ATP tests may fail to detect food residues on surfaces because of degradation of ATP to ADP and AMP. Recently, an ATP-ADP-AMP (A3) test has been used as a powerful tool for revealing inadequate cleaning processes and the subsequent presence of contamination. In this study, the A3 test and three commercially available ATP tests were evaluated in a simulated sanitation monitoring situation with stainless steel coupons. For ham (1,000-fold dilution), the A3 test results were 157,389 relative light units (RLU) and the other commercially available ATP tests results were 0 to 62 RLU. The results of other foods are as follows: raw chicken (100-fold dilution), 15,872 RLU (A3) and 20 to 173 RLU (ATP); beer (10-fold dilution), 10,777 RLU (A3) and 0 to 200 RLU (ATP); yogurt (100-fold dilution), 18,371 RLU (A3) and 911 to 3,104 RLU (ATP); and orange juice (1,000-fold dilution), 4,568 RLU (A3) and 615 to 1,995 RLU (ATP). Therefore, the A3 test is a more accurate tool for the verification of hygiene levels.