ATP vs. Plate Counts

Bioluminescence Checks for microbial and

residual contamination Results in less than 1 minute Simple to use, no technical

expertise required Allows you to check cleaning

practices before production, avoiding costly contamination problems

Provides speedy results required by HACCP

Plate Counts Checks only for the specific

bacteria that can grow in the selected medium.

Results in 24 to 48 hours Requires technical lab support Often requires you to throw

away product after contamination results come back

Do not provide the speed and simplicity of feedback required by modern HACCP demands.

Both have value but provide different results.

Bacteria

Yeast

Somatic

1

100

300,000

Relative ATP concentrations

ATP Compared to Traditional Tests

5 organisms 5 CFU

15 organisms 3 CFU

20 organisms 1 CFU

5 units ATP

15 units ATP

20 units ATP

CFU to RLU Correlation

CFU

RLU

RLU correlates well to CFU with pure culture

Residual ATP

Microbial ATP

Correlation does not occur because in real world environment there is residual ATP as well as microbial ATP.