Abstract: A method of determining the concentration of a surfactant-based neutral cleaner in a wash liquor, a hand-held apparatus, and a test kit for carrying out the method are provided. According to the method, a cleaner composed of the cleaning agent, an amount of a reducing sugar that is proportional to the cleaning agent, and a sugar preserving agent, is added to a wash solution. The concentration of reducing sugar present in the wash solution may then subsequently be determined by infrared quantitative analysis to provide a concentration of reducing sugar correlative with the amount of cleaning agent remaining in the wash liquor. An apparatus suitable for carrying out infrared quantitative analysis can be packaged with associated test supplies and reagents in a test kit.

Abstract: A method of determining the concentration of a surfactant-based neutral cleaner in a wash liquor, a hand-held apparatus, and a test kit for carrying out the method are provided. According to the method, a cleaner composed of the cleaning agent, an amount of a reducing sugar that is proportional to the cleaning agent, and a sugar preserving agent, is added to a wash solution. A sample of the resulting wash liquor is applied to an enzyme system that reacts with the reducing sugar to form a colored end product. After a suitable time interval, the color of the reaction product can be photometrically measured to provide a color intensity value that is correlated to the amount of reducing sugar in the wash liquor, which, in turn, is correlated to the amount of cleaning agent in the wash liquor. The portable apparatus can be packaged with associated test supplies and reagents in a test kit.