Designing a method to test the efficacy of different sanitizers for use in rubber footbaths as applied to dairy manufacturing

This study designed an in vitro model to test the efficacies of footbath sanitizers for use in dairy processing plants. Efficacies of selected sanitizers for inactivation of mixed-cocktail, dairy-relevant Gram-negative bacteria in model footbaths, in the presence of milk residues, were measured over 7 days against attached and planktonic populations by plate counting and calculating log reductions achieved. A simplified practical table ranked the most to the least effective sanitizers. These included: biguanide/quaternary ammonium compound (QAC) combination > biguanide = accelerated hydrogen peroxide = ethanol/sodium hydroxide combination > phenolic compound = amine amphoteric compounds > amphoteric surfactant > diclosan = chlorine dioxide > enzyme/surfactants combination.