Why should I use FILL All Purpose – is it the same as anti-bac?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic our awareness of our cleanliness and levels of hygiene have been heightened over the past couple of years and our vocabulary expanded, our world became full of words such as coronavirus, respirators, quarantines and so many other words that we had never heard of before.

As a consequence of these words we are hearing more anti-words: antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiviral to name a few.

The two cleaners that I would like to talk about are antimicrobial and antibacterial, so what are they and what is the difference?  What should we be choosing for our cleaning products?

Antimicrobial is destructive to or inhibiting to the growth of micro-organisms, including bacteria, viruses, algae, fungi (like mould and mildew) and even dust-mites.

Antibacterial is destructive to or inhibiting to the growth of bacterial only, it prevents bacteria like E.coli and MRSA from forming or it will destroy the germs that are already there.

Antibacterial treatments only actively prevent the growth of bacteria within products. Antimicrobial treatments may further protect products by safeguarding against fungi, algae and certain "micro-animals" such as house dust mites.  They provide an additional line of defence against micro-organisms beyond what antibacterial treatments can offer.

While antibacterial treatments will prevent bacterial growth, they do not protect against other odour-causing and damaging microbes to the extent that antimicrobials can.

Even though they mean different things, antimicrobial and antibacterial are still used somewhat interchangeably.  However, antimicrobials continue to offer more protection than antibacterial products.  Therefore, your products and materials are further safeguarded from odour and stain-causing mould, mildew, algae and/or dust mites.

This gives antimicrobial agents the competitive edge.