FOOD MICROBIOLOGICAL TESTING
Quality Indicators, Spoilage Testing, and Microbial Enumeration
Microorganisms can impact product quality, consistency, process performance, and shelf life long before any issues become apparent.
Biotrax offers comprehensive food microbiological testing services, including microbial enumeration, for raw materials, ingredients, in-process samples, and finished food and beverage products. Our testing services can help establish microbial baselines, evaluate specifications, compare suppliers or production lots, investigate quality concerns, and monitor spoilage testing results over time.
Not sure which type of microbial analysis to request? Just let us know what you are testing and the information you need to obtain. Our knowledgeable team can assist in clarifying the available options, sample requirements, and the best starting point for your needs.
WHEN MICROBIOLOGICAL TESTING MAY HELP
Food microbiological testing may support several important evaluations such as assessing compliance with internal or customer microbial specifications. It can also aid in comparing suppliers, batches, production dates, or storage conditions. Additionally, spoilage testing plays a crucial role in investigating issues like spoilage, off-odors, fermentation, gas formation, or package swelling. This process helps in the development of baselines and monitoring during processing or storage. Moreover, food microbiological testing is essential for making informed decisions regarding product quality, shelf-life, investigations, or product release.
The appropriate analysis, including microbial enumeration, depends on the specific product, production stage, applicable specifications, and the particular questions that the testing aims to address.
AUTOMATED ENUMERATION WITH BIOMÉRIEUX TEMPO
Many of Biotrax’s quantitative microbiological analyses, including food microbiological testing, are performed using the bioMérieux TEMPO system.
The TEMPO system is an automated microbial enumeration platform that relies on the traditional Most Probable Number approach. Prepared samples are combined with test-specific media, loaded into sealed testing cards, incubated, and read automatically to estimate the concentration of viable microorganisms present. This streamlined method supports standardized processing, consistent calculations, and laboratory traceability for routine food-quality and hygiene-indicator testing, as well as spoilage testing.
Traditional cultural and plate-count methods may also be utilized when required by the product, customer specifications, reference methods, or specific testing objectives.
What does 'enumeration' mean?
Enumeration refers to a quantitative test that estimates the number of microorganisms present. This differs from a presence-or-absence test, which only reports whether a specific target was detected in the tested portion.
WHEN A TRADITIONAL PLATE COUNT MAY BE NEEDED
Biotrax also offers applicable traditional cultural and plating methods for food microbiological testing.
Plate-count methods are used to grow microorganisms on agar, enabling microbial enumeration through the counting or isolation of colonies.
These methods may be appropriate when:
- A customer or program requires an FDA BAM method
- A reference cultural method is specified
- A product necessitates different growth conditions
- An investigation involves colony isolation
- Anaerobic microbial growth is a concern
- The product matrix is not suited to the automated method for spoilage testing.
Available options include aerobic plate count, yeast and mold plate count, coliform and generic E. coli counts, Staphylococcus aureus count, and anaerobic plate count.
If you are searching for a specific microorganism that requires plating, reach out to our team for additional information.