Progress report on CEN/TC 216/Working Group 3: Disinfectant test methods for food hygiene, institutional, industrial and domestic applications

The scope of Working Group 3 (WG3) is very wide both in terms of the areas it covers and the range of disinfectant applications. The major role of disinfectants within this field, however, is the control of the microbial contamination of surfaces that could be used to produce products to be eaten or used by people (cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs etc.). For these applications, disinfectants need to be tested to quantify the effects of microbial type and growth conditions, interfering substances, pH, temperature, contact time and concentration. To address these needs, WG3 has produced a Phase 2 Step 1 Bactericidal (prEN 1276) and Fungicidal (prEN 1650) test, which are at the stage of public comment, and are intended to cover the majority of disinfection applications in its remit. More specialist tests are in preparation to cover virucidal and sporicidal applications and will be available by 1997. These are suspension tests and should be applied when the targeted microbial contamination is already in suspension or is brought into suspension by the disinfectant action. In addition, a surface test is being developed on the basis of the protocol published by the Ad-hoc Surface Test Group. This test will be used to assess disinfection efficacy against organisms attached to surfaces, e.g. those remaining on food processing surfaces after a cleaning action. It is hoped that these approaches will provide test methods that will give confidence, to both disinfectant manufacturers and users, of the performance of disinfectant products when used for their intended purpose.