Validating surface cleaning agents

摘要

To maintain microbiological control of cleanrooms in pharmaceutical facilities, all surfaces need to be disinfected using suitable disinfectants -specially formulated chemical agents used to reduce the number of viable microorganisms to an acceptable level.1 To be considered an effective disinfectant, the chemical agent is required to pass a series of validation tests. These tests can be divided into two groups: those that the manufacturer must conduct (the suspension test); and those that the user should conduct (surface testing and field trials). Within the pharmaceutical industry the tests are a regulatory expectation and the most important is the surface test, in which the efficacy of a disinfectant is evaluated against different types of surface materials.