Table 5. Currently employed methods to determine the efficacy of industrial laundering and microbiological burden of textiles.

Country	Test	Method	Pass criteria	Reference
United Kingdom	Sterile Swatch Test	Laundering of sterile textile swatch and viable counting number of contaminating microorganisms by eluting in recovery media and membrane filtration.	No microorganism detected.	British Standards Institute (2016), U.K. Department of Health (2016b)
	Semi-permeable dosing strips	Semi-permeable membranes containing Enterococcus faecium on textile carriers are laundered. Textile swatches are removed from the semi-permeable membrane and incubated in tryptone soya broth. A lack of growth indicates a 5 log10 reduction.	5 log10 reduction of E. faecium.	U.K. Department of Health (2016b).
Germany (RKI/RAL)	Bioindicator method	Cotton carriers inoculated with S. aureus or E. faecium are laundered before incubation in tryptone soya broth. A lack of growth indicates a 5 log10 reduction.	5 log10 reduction of E. faecium and S. aureus.	Fijan, Cencic & Turk (2006), Heintz & Bohnen (2011).
	RODAC plating	RODAC plates are pressed on to the surface of a defined area of laundered textile. After incubation, the number of colonies are counted. Colonies are further investigated for specific pathogens.	≤20 CFU/dm2 microorganisms. RAL: no pathogens; ≤30 CFU/dm2 on damp textile, <100 CFU/dm2 on environmental surfaces.	Fijan, Šostar Turk & Cencič (2005), Heintz & Bohnen (2011).
United States of America (TRSA)	USP 62	Processed textile is incubated in tryptone soya broth and plated onto selective agars for Salmonella sp., P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, Clostridium sp. and C. albicans.	No pathogens detected.	United States Pharmacopoeia (2016); TRSA (2019).
	RODAC Plating	RODAC plates are pressed on to the surface of a defined area of laundered textile. After incubation, the number of colonies are counted.	≤20 CFU/dm2 microorganisms; ≤20 CFU/dm2 yeasts and mould total count.