Q: Is there a sure way to find out if a floor and surface disinfectant cleaner is doing the job that it should do?
Yes, according to Allen Rathey, president of The Healthy Facilities Institute, there are ways to measure these performance aspects. ATP (adenosine triphosphate) measurement devices can detect residual soil in the form of living or once-living organisms. After cleaning, swabbing the surface and measuring for ATP will tell you how much organic matter – alive or dead – remains.
However, this is really a way to measure cleaning efficacy rather than sanitizing/disinfecting performance re: inactivation of live microbes; still it does serve as a useful barometer of “clean” or hygienic (if there is less organic matter present, there will be less microbial growth).
