Another misconception that seems to have been gaining in popularity lately is the idea of using ATP sanitation monitoring systems as part of food allergen control programs. The theory here is that if all or most of the ATP on our surface or in a CIP system has been eliminated, all of the possible allergenic protein has also been eliminated.
“There are at least a couple of reasons why this is a very bad idea. First, allergenic protein can exist on a surface at up to 100 times the level of concern and still be below the detection level of any ATP system,” said Topper. “Secondly, like the rationale on why you can’t determine the level of bacterial ATP from a result from an ATP sanitation monitoring system, you can’t know how much of an ATP result is from an allergenic protein and how much is from something else.
“So, if we set a very low fail limit with our ATP system, we may end up cleaning more than we have to,” he continued. “The cleaning process may remove the allergenic protein more effectively than the other organic matter. If that’s the case, a company could have spent a lot of time, energy and money cleaning beyond what was necessary