Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) testing might sound like a highly niche term, but it has become an essential service in commercial cleaning operations. Historically, there are numerous applications for its use, including the food and beverage industry, healthcare facilities, water quality testing and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations across almost every industry are under pressure to ensure their environments are clean and sanitary, especially in areas where there is a high volume of footfall or a higher risk of harmful particulates spreading.
ATP is an energy molecule found in all living cells that enables cellular metabolism to occur. All forms of organic matter contain ATP, which can become a point of cross-contamination between building occupants in areas such as washrooms or food and beverage establishments.
Traditional testing for it begins with a sample collection, typically using a swab to gather residual biological material from a surface or liquid. The swab is then placed in a test tube containing reagent, usually luciferase-luciferin, which reacts with ATP to produce light through a bioluminescent reaction. From here, the test tube is inserted into a luminometer, an instrument that measures the light output, to measure the light in Relative Light Units (RLUs), with higher RLU values indicating higher levels of contamination.
ATP testing is often crucial because – as the Covid-19 pandemic made clear – the cleanliness and hygiene of an environment doesn’t always pass the eye test. Often, harmful particulates are invisible, and contaminated surfaces can lead to rapid microbial contamination.
Moving to the smart era
Today, technology is transforming ATP testing into a vital component of smart cleaning, where a combination of sensors and analytics can help both efficacy and accuracy of the process. ATP testing can be a scientific tool used across cleaning contracts to validate the visual standard of cleanliness and confirm the quality of visual inspections site-wide by providing reliable data that removes any ambiguity. Results can be combined with visual inspection notes, tagged with geofenced labels, and incorporated into reports and data.
Switching to on-demand cleaning
The ability to capture, analyse and action data is enabling smart cleaning, where organisations can shift from routine to demand-driven cleaning. Cleaning teams can gain data on footfall, customer satisfaction, and ATP to develop a more efficient and effective regime. By including ATP testing data into the mix, cleaning teams can create a benchmark and determine how factors such as footfall and cleaning schedules impacts this. In one office space that SoftBank Robotics supports, an ATP test conducted on the floor revealed that the daily cleaning, performed once a day, was excessive as the floor was found to be as clean as that of a sanitised laboratory.
To optimise the cleaning process for human cleaning teams, a counter sensor was installed to monitor foot traffic, and the cleaning crew is now notified to perform cleaning when the foot traffic reaches 1,000. This action has led to a notable 40% cost reduction for the customer.
This kind of data-driven, scientific testing proves the quality and consistency of cleaning efforts while removing the need for weekly audits. Meanwhile, organisations can guarantee high sanitary levels while making cleaning operations more efficient and freeing cleaning teams to focus more on customer service.
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