Neogen has introduced an advanced ATP hygiene monitoring system that uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to make testing in a facility much easier, and an updated software program to simplify data creation and interpretation.
The AccuPoint 2 Hygiene Monitoring System features the latest advance in ATP monitoring, RFID technology. The technology involves two components: an antenna and RFID tags. The tags are passive, which means they give off no signal on their own. They simply reflect the RFID signal back to the instrument with their specific code, which is linked to the appropriate test site grouping. To prevent the system from being a potential point of contamination, the RFID tags, which are about the size of a euro/pound coin, have been inserted into a 15cm x 15cm, brightly coloured sign.
“We’ve tried to move the design of the day’s test plan from the manager’s computer to the instrument,” explains Steve Chambers from Neogen Europe. “In the past, you would have to create a daily test plan on a computer and upload it to the instrument, then toggle and scroll, and toggle and scroll some more to get to the appropriate test site before you could test the site — for every site you tested. We’ve eliminated all that. With just one swipe the instrument can be ready to test.”
The user simply swipes the instrument near the tag and the site group is read automatically. From there, the instrument picks test sites within the site group automatically at random. If the facility has chosen to designate some test sites as mandatory, meaning they are ‘hot spots’ or sites that need to be tested each time, those are presented first and appear in red on the instrument’s display.
A daily test plan can be developed to monitor the effectiveness of the facility’s cleaning program by testing any or all of the points. Because most facilities have more critical control points than can be realistically tested on a daily basis, in the past supervisors had no other choice but to take the time to attempt to tailor daily test plans to best ensure the overall cleanliness of the facility.
