Patent ID: 7976639

Claim:
A method of determining the amount of allergens picked up by a cleaning product from a surface, the method comprising the steps of: determining a deposition efficiency of a process used to deposit test material onto a surface; determining an extraction efficiency of a process used to extract allergens from a cleaning product that is used to remove the test material from the surface; applying the test material to the surface; removing the test material from the surface with the cleaning product; extracting allergens from the cleaning product; determining a percentage of allergens removed from the surface; and determining a pick-up efficiency for the cleaning product from the percentage of allergens removed; and modifying the pick-up efficiency by the deposition efficiency and the extraction efficiency to obtain a corrected pick-up efficiency for the cleaning product, wherein the corrected pick-up efficiency is defined by the equation: PU corrected = PU ( EX 100 ) × ( DE 100 ) , wherein PU is the pick-up efficiency; EX is the extraction efficiency; and DE is the deposition efficiency; and wherein PU is defined by the equation: PU = C allergen - PU × V PU M dust - PU × C allergen - in - dust × 100 , wherein C allergen-PU is allergen concentration in wash solution used for extracting the allergens from the cleaning product; V PU is volume of wash solution used for extracting the allergens from the cleaning product; M dust-PU is mass of the test material; and C allergen-in-dust is allergen concentration in the test material.