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EPA Announces New Standards for Antimicrobial Efficacy Testing
For Release: December 12, 2013
The Environmental Protection Agency is adopting new performance standards for the AOAC Use-dilution Methods for Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Antimicrobial pesticide registrants and the laboratories that provide data to support their registrations should begin using the new standards, which are now available on the EPA’s Antimicrobial Policy & Guidance Documents webpage. The new AOAC UDM performance standards will help ensure that EPA-registered antimicrobial pesticides are effective against the target microbes, which is especially critical in health care settings.
The AOAC UDM 955.15 (Staphylococcus aureus) and 964.02 (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) are laboratory assays used to measure the antimicrobial efficacy of liquid disinfectants on inanimate surfaces. The EPA reassessed the previous methods’ performance standards and submitted its findings and recommendations for changing the standards to the Journal of AOAC International for publication. In August 2013 the AOAC approved the new performance criteria for methods 955.15 and 964.02.
AOAC INTERNATIONAL is a scientific association, which publishes standardized, chemical analysis methods designed to increase confidence in results of chemical and microbiologic analyses.