A New Method to Evaluate the Antimicrobial Efficacy of Domestic Laundry Detergents
Jan Schages, Rainer Stamminger, Dirk P. Bockmühl
Abstract
Abstract During the last decades, the strive for energy efficiency lead to lower washing temperatures in laundering processes. In this regard, there is a rising need to measure the antimicrobial action of laundry detergents and additives, since chemistry must be considered an important means to compensate for the loss of temperature. Although there is an existing standard method (EN 16616) to evaluate the antimicrobial efficacy of detergents for the medical area, this method does not reflect the domestic situation and neglects important steps, such as the rinse cycles. Hence, we developed an experimental setup, which represents the whole washing process and reflects the domestic situation by using a household‐related setting. The suggested method uses a lab‐scale washing machine, which does not only allow to test products that can be applied throughout the whole laundering process (including the rinse steps) but also proved to be able to show the impact of different parameters (e.g., detergent ingredient or different types of textiles) in a very systematic manner.