Healthcare cleaning and medical device reprocessing keep evolving as manufacturers look for smarter, safer, and more effective ways to clean complex instruments and surfaces. The pressure is on to create solutions that not only work in the lab but also deliver real-world results inside healthcare facilities—where the stakes for patient safety run high and the margin for error runs thin.
In part four of this series, three industry experts dig into how detergent manufacturers evaluate and differentiate their products, what healthcare professionals should look for when selecting cleaning chemistries, and how companies like Univar Solutions and Novonesis are helping shape the future of enzymatic detergent development through formulation expertise, testing support, and innovation.
Joining the conversation are John Howell, global business development at Novonesis; John Harp, technical service scientist at Novonesis; and Brandon Beyer, North American technical manager for ingredients and specialties at Ingredients + Specialties from Univar Solutions.
How manufacturers test their products
Testing enzymatic detergents for medical device reprocessing is less standardized than many people assume.
“At the moment there’s currently no universal standards for testing enzymatic detergents,” Harp said. What is important to recognize, he noted, is that detergent manufacturers follow the guidance of medical device makers—because those device makers ultimately need to validate how their instruments can be cleaned.
Harp described three general approaches manufacturers take when testing their products. The first is using commercially available indicators such as TOSI and STF, which are designed to provide a quick and reproducible way to evaluate performance. The second is using global standards organizations such as ASTM and ISO methods to generate reproducible work around soil application, product performance, and efficacy.
The third—and perhaps most important—is developing proprietary soils. Manufacturers look at the performance of their product against these proprietary soils to draw conclusions about its effectiveness.
“We know that manufacturers are measuring soil removal,” Harp said. “They’re checking for parameters such as rinsibility and removal of residues as well as reduction in foam or the appropriate amount of foam.” All of it has to be compatible with the materials being tested, done safely, and ultimately biocompatible.
Five ways products stand apart
If every detergent looked the same at face value, no one would have anything to choose between. Harp pointed to five core areas where manufacturers differentiate their products.
Efficacy comes first. Manufacturers want a product that goes after blood, proteins, and fats under realistic conditions—lower temperatures, different water types, different soils. The goal is to build the strongest data story possible using either in-house methods or commercial indicators.
Device compatibility comes next. With an increasingly complex market of medical instruments, manufacturers need to avoid damaging devices or leaving residues behind. Targeting specific instrument types allows for cleaner results and clearer differentiation.
Workflow integration is the third lever. Hospitals demand both efficacy and consistency. The right formulation—possibly with automatic dosing or formats that reduce operator complexity—helps maximize the time technicians spend doing the best job they can.
Sustainability and safety make up the fourth area. Growing pressure around environmental impact has pushed manufacturers to develop products with better biodegradability and fewer harsh chemicals.
Innovation rounds out the list. Enzymes are becoming more stable and more versatile. Smart dosing systems, monitoring technologies, and increasingly sophisticated equipment all create opportunities for detergents to fit specific needs.
“If a manufacturer wants to differentiate themselves, they can use a lot of these levers to do so,” Harp said.
What healthcare facilities should ask
For healthcare facilities choosing a product, the freedom to evaluate options depends on contractual obligations and device manufacturer guidance. When facilities do have flexibility, they rarely have the time or resources to run their own testing.
“It’s ideal that they kind of lean on the detergent manufacturers and start getting to know them, work with the vendors, and start asking questions,” Howell said.
The right questions matter. Howell encouraged facilities to ask how a manufacturer tests, what they test, and how broad their testing is. A key question: Has the manufacturer had a chance to test against clinical soils or real-world soils?
“What you do in the lab is very different what you’re going to confront in a reprocessing facility,” Howell said. Case studies and clinical soil testing carry real weight. So does context—water hardness, water quality, temperatures, and the specific equipment in a facility all shape product selection.
Where to find the right partners
The internet is the obvious starting point—and the obvious trap. Information overload and false information make it a problematic first stop.
Howell pointed to industry conferences as a better path. ISSA, for instance, may not host many medical detergent manufacturers directly, but plenty of exhibitors there have divisions that work in the space and can make connections.
For a more focused experience, Howell recommended the Healthcare Sterile Processing Association (HSPA), where technicians, department heads, and detergent manufacturers all gather. “You have a chance to network, ask questions, and really learn about what is out there, what are the new innovations,” he said.
From beaker to bucket
Beyer offered a practical lens on the testing process. Manufacturers often rely on proxy tests for what is real, he noted, and smaller firms entering the space may not even know how to test. Both the Novonesis and Univar Solutions labs are well versed in this and have methods to guide manufacturers through it.
“I’m a big fan of going from the beaker to the bucket as quick as possible,” Beyer said. Screening tests with pig’s blood and similar substrates have their place, but the best indicator of success is success—getting real-world soils into the process as quickly as possible.
He also pushed back against the assumption that performance is everything. Cleaning has an experiential dimension. A product with a poor odor or harsh feel on the hands during manual cleaning may not get used consistently, no matter how well it performs in a lab.
“The consequence in medical device reprocessing of failure is a bit higher, but there still are humans involved and there’s an experiential aspect,” Beyer said.
How the portfolios work together
Novonesis brings the largest medical portfolio for enzymes to the market, and Univar Solutions has complete access to it. The two companies frequently work in lockstep, sometimes partnering to educate customers directly.
Beyer described his team’s approach as starting with a single question: What problem are we trying to solve? Enzymes are part of the toolkit, but cleaning involves chelants, surfactants, polymers, acids, bases, and quats as well.
“The enzymatic approach, because these are biological soils, these are purpose built by nature to break down some of these soils so it’s probably the most powerful tool in your toolbox,” Beyer said.
He credited the depth of technical expertise across both organizations as the real differentiator. “I’m okay, but there’s an army behind us,” he said. When his team doesn’t have an answer, the global network of technical professionals across surfactants, polymers, chelants, and enzymes typically does.
Final thoughts
Closing out the series, each expert returned to fundamentals.
Howell pointed to education. The CDC, FDA, and World Health Organization all underscore how critical cleaning is—which means the choice of detergent, and how it was developed, is also critical. “It boils down to just educating yourself, learning, asking questions, and networking,” he said.
Harp framed it around outcomes. “There really should only be one standard of clean, and that is as clean as we can possibly get using the best possible technologies to get there,” he said. Medical devices are complex, and the technologies used to clean them have to evolve in step.
Beyer brought it back to the cleaning wheel—temperature, time, mechanical action, and chemistry—the same fundamentals consumers know intuitively from cleaning their own homes. The environment in healthcare is higher consequence and higher value, but the underlying logic is the same.
“If you have questions, my last thought is you have help,” Beyer said. “There’s the three of us and there’s a whole, I think I said, technical family tree behind you to help you select products and teach you and help you how to test and work as a partner in that process.”
To learn more about Novonesis, click here.
Learn more about Ingredients + Specialties from Univar Solutions, click here.
Be sure to watch the first episode, Beyond the Scrub: How Enzymes Are Shaping the Future of Medical Device Cleaning, the second episode, Inside the Art of Cleaning—and What Happens When It Fails, and the third episode, The Chemistry Behind the Clean: Detergents and Enzymes in Medical Device Reprocessing.
