Abstract
Many bacteria possess the ability to adhere and grow on solid surfaces. The existence of bacterial biofilms in food processing plants and in or on food processing equipment can have serious consequences, and various cleaning and sanitizing procedures are employed to deal with such contamination. Bacteriological monitoring methods are employed to test the efficiency of these cleaning procedures, and the most widely used technique is the swab rinse method whereby a moistened sterile sv/ab is rubbed over the surface of the area to be sampled. One difficulty with this procedure is that the surface contact area of the swab is quite small, so that evenly swabbing a defined area can be difficult. To correct this problem, square sponges have been tried as substitutes to provide a much greater contact area. However, recent studies have shown that some sponges may contain bacteriostatic substances which can hinder test results. To determine whether some makes of sponges may contain bacteriostatic agents, SEM was used to examine samples which had been exposed to conditions to promote bacterial attachment and growth on their surface. The results of these observations were correlated with microbial tests to determine bacteriostatic activity of duplicate sponge samples.
Published Version
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