Assessment of Hygienic Quality of Surfaces in Retail Food Service Establishments Based on Microbial Counts and Real-Time Detection of ATP

Clean food contact surfaces are important in reducing the likelihood of foodborne disease transmission. The goal of this study was to assess and compare baseline cleanliness of food contact and environmental surfaces in retail food establishments by using ATP bioluminescence (ATP-B), visual assessment, and surface contact plates. Four hundred eighty-nine surface samples were collected from three food service establishments at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities (Minneapolis) and analyzed for either ATP (252) or total aerobic plate count bacteria (237). ATP levels ranged from a minimum of 4 relative light units (RLU; 0.60 log RLU) on a clean slicer to a maximum of 506,618 RLU (5.77 log RLU) on a dirty cutting board. The overall mean was 1,950 RLU (3.29 log RLU). Cutting boards had the highest ATP levels (mean, 5,495 RLU or 3.74 log RLU; median, 6,761 RLU or 3.83 log RLU). Of the 128 samples judged visually clean at the time of sampling, 70.3% failed ATP-B testing. Sixty-one (26%) of the 237 total aerobic plate count samples yielded counts of over 125 CFU/50 cm(2) (failed), and of those that failed, 40% were assessed as visually clean before sampling. The highest average counts in CFU/50 cm(2) were found on slicers (104) and cutting boards (87). The results of this study suggest that the current practice of evaluating food contact surface cleanliness by sight and touch to meet regulatory requirements might be inadequate. ATP-B testing may be an efficient tool to facilitate creation, implementation, and validation of more effective food contact surface cleaning in food establishments.