Rapid Microbiology Testing

Identification of the bacteria is easier and more specific. There is no need to look for haemolysis.

Conventional media test require several test but Simplate is a single test and can enumerate to 103.
 

Factories that produces food that are chilled or frozen usually test for Listeria eg: seafood processing factories, ice cream factory and frozen meat like sausages.
 

The process is and involves multiple steps and as such increases the chances of making mistakes. Final identification also involves either latex agglutination or other methods of differentiation of the flagellar antigen.

 Yes infections of milk have in the past been one of the most prominent problem causing a major milk powder producing company to close down.

Previously food producers test only for 0157:H7 believing it to be the only cause of haemorrhage. After the outbreak in Europe it was discovered that there are 6 other non 0157 Ecoli that causes haemorrhage. Therefore it has become imperative in US to test all beef for TOP STEC E coli.

 This is the simplest test for the safety of your food from a microbiological stand point. It indicates the hygienic conditions the food is produced in and whether your customers will have a problem eating it. It is an early warning detection to a possible problem.

Biocontrol simplate cannot differentiate between yeast and molds. This is because there is so many species. Differentiation is done by means of morphology. However the enumeration of these is difficult as some grow faster than others.

Psuedomonas  aeruginosa is a common bacterium that is found everywhere on equipment for the production of pharmaceuticals. It can infect humans and cause inflammation of organs like eyes, kidneys and urinary tract. As such the USP and EP has required that these pathogens are absent in pharmaceutical products.
 

Enterobacteriaceae is a wide net and this gives you better safety for indicator organism. Moreover it is necessary test for European countries.
 

Yes it is a dangerous bacteria that can cause rapid death in victims. It is very common in meat and it is mandatory for meat companies in USA to test for this organism.

This is problematic because it is everywhere and infection can be from people to food. Food after the heat kill step are especially susceptible to this problem. Infection before the heat kill step is also dangerous as its toxins produced cannot be destroyed by heat.

No culture media does not differentiate the STEC Ecoli. This is because the definition of STEC is first from the O antigens and then identification of the toxin producing genes, eae, STX 1 and STX 2.

Accurate counting is very important because most food is not sterile and has a certain number of bacteria in it. Counting will give you the estimate of the shelf life of the product. Most food produced if there is any quality control from a microbiological standpoint, will release the food by a limit on the total aerobic bacteria. Over estimating as well as under estimating is not desirable.

This is because yeast and molds are everywhere and in the air. They contaminate every product and does not differentiate the substrate. Moldy products can easily be seen and gives a bad reputation for your products. Moreover they cause a stale taste and produces mycotoxin.

 It is excluded from pharmaceutical products from both the USP and EP.
 

Most companies has a zero tolerance for Enterobacteriaceae but enumeration will give you an idea of the severity of the problem. Remember than many of these bacteria are harmless.
 

Assurance GDS is a PCR method which has 3 levels of differentiation- Selective enrichment, immunomagnetic separation and identification using gene segments.

Some methods of testing for e coli cannot detect 0157. E coli can only be used as an indicator organism and is too common to cause alarm

 Everybody should be testing for this organism. But milk production is very special because mastitis of the cow teats are very common. Powdered products like cocoa, tea should also be aware.

The ISO standard has specifies that the minimum thickness of agar in a petri dish is 4.5 mm. They have figured that is the minimum needed to give nutrients to bacteria. Some aerobic bacteria grows rapidly and they consume lots of nutrients. When this happen all bacteria dies and the result is no count. This is a serious error that will damage your company as it is a false negative.

This is because Simplate detects the presence of yeast and molds by way of enzyme detection. Before they grow to colonies that is detectable by the eye, they produce enzymes for respiration growth.

 The regulations require testing for only Pseudomonas  aeruginosa but   for  safety reasons testing should be carried out for pseudomonas spp as an indicator organism