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Welcome to the Ensure and SystemSURE Plus tutorial for setting ATP pass/fail limits
for the food and beverage industries. In this video we will cover lower and upper
RLU limits, default limits on your systems, how to determine custom limits and how to
program those limits. Let's get started. The first section is lower
and upper RLU limits Test results are measured in relative light
units. RLUs are a unit of measure for adenosine triphosphate. The scale varies depending upon
manufacturer, but the greater the amount of ATP, the greater the RLU number.
Any RLU score less than the lowest threshold is a pass and will be indicated by a check
mark on the screen. Pass results indicate that the location has been cleaned properly
and it is safe to continue production. A score in between the pass and fail threshold
is a caution and will be indicated by an exclamation point. Depending on your internal protocol,
the caution location should either be re-cleaned and retested until a pass result is achieved
or monitored for future problems. A score greater than the Upper threshold is
a fail and will be marked with an X on the screen. A Fail result indicates the surface
is dirty or contaminated. The failed location should be immediately re-cleaned and retested
until a Pass or Caution result is achieved. Your meter comes preset with a default lower
limit of 10 and an upper limit of 30. This creates a caution area of 11-30.
If you wish to eliminate the caution area, set 10 as your pass limit and 10 as your fail
limit. The default limits of 10 and 30 RLUs are based
on years of food and beverage processing experience and third party studies. For more information,
the ATP Thresholds technical document is available at www.hygiena.com. Download this document
for your records or HACCP documentation. Hygiena encourages users to validate these recommendations
and adjust them to the requirements of each facility's unique needs.
The next section is determining custom RLU limits.
In some cases, custom RLU limits may be required for certain locations. Programming custom
RLU limits depends on the following factors. The first factor is the type of surface.
Surfaces that are easy to clean, such as stainless steel or flat, non-porous surfaces may have
stricter, lower limits. Surfaces which are hard to clean, such as porous, grooved, creviced
or irregular surfaces like conveyor belts, may have higher limits.
The next factor is direct contact versus indirect contact surfaces.
Surfaces that do not have direct contact with high risk products such as a control button
or the side of a conveyor belt may allow less stringent RLU limits. On the other hand, surfaces
that do have contact with high-risk products such as raw meat, may require stricter RLU
limits to ensure cleaning interventions are effective.
The last factor is the type of product. Products with a lower risk of contamination
such cooked products or products with a longer shelf life can have higher RLU limits. On
the other hand, products with a higher risk of contamination such as ready to eat products
and products with a short shelf life may require lower limits.
To determine custom RLU limits for your facility, complete this 4 step process: identify, clean,
test and calculate. Step 1: Identify control points in the facility.
These are often outlined in the GMP, SSOP or HACCP programs.
Step 2: Clean surfaces to the highest standard of cleanliness. This may include a total production
line breakdown. Refer to your GMP, SSOP or HACCP program for more information. Be sure
that future cleanings will be held to this level of clean as a standard.
Step 3: Perform an ATP test at each control point, taking 5-10 replicate tests. You can
either perform tests over several days or for control points with large surface area,
perform multiple tests from different spots at that location.
Step 4: Calculate the lower and upper RLU limits
To calculate the lower RLU limit, take the average RLU for each location based on the
5-10 test results. The average result will be the lower RLU limit.
To calculate the upper RLU limit, you can either: multiply the lower limit by 3 or for
the most statistically sound method, determine the standard deviation from the test results,
multiply the standard deviation by 3, and add this to the lower limit.
For written instructions and a spreadsheet, download the technical document entitled "Establishing
ATP Thresholds" from www.hygiena.com. Or contact us for an excel calculator.
Now that you've established your custom limits, we will discuss programming those limits.
You can manually adjust the pass/fail limits on the instrument through the menu option,
"Programs". Or to get the most out of your monitoring system and be able to run charts
and graphs with your test results, then program your locations using SureTrend software and
sync to your meter. Constantly looking to improve your food safety
program shows due diligence and is crucial to finding trouble zones, correcting improper
cleaning procedures, decreasing risk and avoiding recalls.
If you're obtaining high frequencies of caution and fail results, users should review sanitation
materials and procedures. In some cases if you rarely obtain caution
or fail results, consider lowering your limits for a more strict program.
This concludes our Hygiena tutorial. Make sure to subscribe to our channel to stay up
to date on our newest videos. If you have any questions feel to contact Hygiena with
the information on the screen. With 24/7 customer service and technical support, Hygiena is
here to help.