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.