A novel imaging system for rapid visualization of bacteria on surfaces

The ability to identify locations that are missed in routine cleaning is important. Visual inspection, ATP bioluminescence systems, and fluorescence or ultraviolet light are monitoring methods that indicate overall cleanliness, but not contamination removal. In this study, we use Staphylococcus aureus to evaluate a novel imaging system that provides a rapid, visual confirmation of the presence of bacteria on surfaces at four log concentrations ranging from approximately 4.7x100 to 1.8x104 CFU/cm2. We found that the combination of the illuminator spray and imaging software was able to detect the presence of bacteria on the surfaces and indicate relative concentration by visualizing the contamination as a heat map.