Cleanliness of linen and clothing items professionally laundered or dry-cleaned

Abstract

We asked 14 professional cleaners (laundry services) to clean various unused (new) linen and clothing items with a microbial contamination level of ＜1 cfu/cm2 and then evaluated the bacterial/ fungal contamination of the laundered or dry-cleaned items. After laundering, 6 (21.4z) of the 28 samples from 4 of the 14 cleaners (28.6z) were contaminated (1–1,200 cfu/cm2). After dry-cleaning, 2 (7.1z) of the 28 samples from 2 (14.3z) of the 14 cleaners were contaminated (7–10 cfu/cm2). The main contaminant was Bacillus cereus. No sample of the laundered or dry-cleaned items showed Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, or Pseudomonas aeruginosa contamination. All 14 cleaners investigated in this study used batch-type washing machines. Therefore, batch-type washing machines can cause contamination of linen and clothing items with B. cereus.