How does one go about validating a uv sanitiser?

Hello,

How does one go about validating a uv sanitiser that will be used to sanitise items moving from low risk into a high risk room?

I look forward to your ideas...

Many thanks,

To begin, unless the material has a smooth, impervious surface and the UV light will shine 360 degrees around the material in question, it will not work as the nooks and crannies will not see the UV at all

UV works best on liquid mediums where the light can penetrate all the way through

Can you add some detail to your query?

Hi Scampi,

To add to my initial query, we are looking to sanitise the outside of plastic bags containing packaging materials which will be hot filled with sauce in the high risk room.  We are in the process of setting up a high risk facility and are looking to trial a uv sanitiser next week to check how it works.  What would be a suitable validation methodology to apply during this trial?

Many thanks

You will need to send bags pre and post sanitizer to an outside lab to verify a suitable log reduction.

So take random samples of bags that have NOT passed through UV light, put them inside sterile bags for shipping

The take DIFFERENT random bags (under worse case scenario) that HAVE passed trough the light, using sterile gloves put those bags inside sterile bags

Then ship em to a lab where they will complete plating and growth for both sets.

If you contact a reputable lab in your area they should be able to assist 

To include in the above, you must also note the paramters that will affect your UV lights, the results of your tests will depend on some of the parameters on top of the nature of the material that you will subject to UV. Paramters such as below will play important factor in your UV.

1. How intense your UV light is and (by reference literature, how "low the intensity" would be for it to be sufficient still)

2. The distance to your UV light and if your UV light cover in entirety the packaging you will subject.

3. How fast will you pass the packaging on your UV light.

Thanks

Depending on how much budget / time there is for this, I know that Campden can offer challenge testing for this type of process, dosing the bags with known organisms prior to the sterilisation, as I've used it here.

If the supplier is trying to sell you the equipment for this specific purpose then I'd expect them to be able to provide exactly this type of information - it wouldn't be a replacement for your own proper validation but will be useful nonetheless.

Thanks all for your comments.  I suspect it will necessary to measure (or at least know) the intensity of the uv bulb as part of the validation.  As regards verification of bulb intensity (uv dose) over time, what measurement options are there?

I would think you'll also want to include the cleanliness of the bulbs.........a film of even "clean" dust will impact the effectiveness of them