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September 06-08, 2018 | Edinburgh, Scotland

Food safety and Hygiene

International Conference on

Journal of Food Technology and Preservation | ISSN: 2591-796X | Volume 2

An assessment of cleaning technique using swabbing procedures

Paula Mitton

Five Star Hygiene and Safety Ltd, UK

swabbing exercise was carried out within 35 outlets of a

UK-based supermarket retailer over a 7-month period. The

visits were unannounced and conducted on normal working

days. The purpose was to check whether the swabs would

pass the recommended values, in order to give an indication

of whether cleaning techniques were effective and frequent

enough. A Hygiena System Sure Plus Luminometer was used for

the exercise together with Ultra Snap Surface ATP Test swabs.

Swabbing was carried out on counters where open raw and

ready to eat food products were served to customers. A total of

1108 swabswere taken. For each counter one touch point (hand

contact surface), two fixed surfaces and two pieces of moveable

equipment was swabbed. When a swab failed a staff member

was asked to clean the surface using their normal procedure.

If the swab failed again the cleaning method was checked

closely, and suggestions made. There were 281 swab fails, just

over 25% of the total. 38% of touch point swabs failed, 26% of

fixed surface swabs failed and 19% of moveable equipment

swabs failed. 51 swabs failed a second time after cleaning. It

was observed that this was due to a number of factors: the

two stage cleaning technique not being followed with an over-

reliance on sanitiser only, lack of agitation to release dirt and

dirt being smeared onto the surface from surrounding areas.

A clean cloth was used in all cases. Results improved after

using detergent with equipment that would allow agitation.

A re-evaluation of cleaning technique is needed by food

safety professionals. Just smearing dirt around is not cleaning!

Speaker Biography

Paula Mitton is the managing director of Five Star Hygiene and Safety Limited at UK.

She works for the encouragement of food safety and hygiene.

Paula Mitton, Food Safety 2018, Volume 2

DOI: 10.4066/2591-796X-C1-002