Hygiene monitoring and control

Contact plates press directly onto a flat surface and give a countable result per defined area, making them the better choice for trend monitoring. Swabs recover from irregular surfaces, crevices, drains and equipment interiors where a plate cannot make contact.

ATP bioluminescence measures organic residue and gives a cleaning verdict in seconds, so it is used to release a line immediately after cleaning. It does not measure viable organisms — a culture count remains necessary where the question is microbiological rather than hygiene.

Formulations intended for post-sanitisation sampling include neutralisers such as lecithin and polysorbate to inactivate residual disinfectant. Without them, carried-over sanitiser suppresses growth on the plate and produces falsely clean results.

Frequency follows your risk assessment and the zone being sampled — product-contact surfaces are typically sampled far more often than perimeter areas. We can advise on a sampling plan against your HACCP or environmental monitoring programme.

Active air sampling uses an impaction sampler drawing a measured volume onto an agar plate, giving a result per cubic metre. Settle plates give a simpler deposition measure. Which applies depends on whether your standard specifies a volumetric result.

Yes — irradiated and triple-bagged formats are available for aseptic and classified areas, supplied with the documentation a compendial environmental monitoring programme requires.