Abstract
Assuring food safety is currently a global challenge. Frequent testing of food samples for the presence of microorganisms should be performed as part of any food safety program. The conventional tests are in general laborious and time consuming. In this context, the use of alternative rapid tests becomes important. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of Petrifilm test method and standard colony count method for enumerating aerobes, Coliforms and Escherichia coli . The Aerobic Plate Count (APC), Coliform Plate Count (CPC) and E. coli obtained using Rapid Petrifilm test method were compared with the corresponding standard methods using 24 samples of 3 different foods, namely poultry, ready to serve drink (RTS) and milk powder. The counts obtained using Rapid Petrifilm method were not significantly (p E. coli were 0.9817, 0.9969 and 0.9983, respectively. The study shows that the Rapid Petrifilm Test method can effectively be used for APC and CPC for foods. Tropical Agricultural Research Vol. 23 (4): 363-369 (2012) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/tar.v23i4.4872
Highlights
Assuring the safety of food has been a global challenge
Samples of spray dried milk powder (10 g), poultry (10 g) and ready to serve drink (RTS) (10 ml) were homogenized in 90 ml of 0.1% peptone water and 10 fold dilutions were prepared as needed by transferring 1 ml of sample into 9 ml of 0.1% peptone waterEach food sample was inoculated with different quantities of Enterobacter aerogenes, E. coli and B. cereus cultures and suitable dilutions were enumerated in duplicates (Refai, 1979; American Public Health Association, 1992)
Colony counts for both Petrifilm and standard method were obtained for 24 food samples of three foods
Summary
Assuring the safety of food has been a global challenge. In this exercise, frequent testing of foods by analytical laboratories plays a significant role. Food testing laboratories are required to provide accurate analytical reports in a timely manner. Testing of food for microbiological parameters is important in determining the quality and hygiene of products. It is helpful to allow corrective actions to be taken during the production process. The conventional techniques used for enumeration of microorganisms in foods are laborious and material intensive as they involve a number of steps including rehydration of culture media, sterilization of media and equipment and sample preparation. Following inoculation of culture media, incubation at a given temperature is essential in most procedures
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