Providing Innovative Solutions for Your Laboratory

Environmental:
Creating or maintaining a comprehensive environmental monitoring programme is becoming increasingly critical in the food industry today. Programmes that effectively monitor and manage areas of microbiological risk in the plant environment can serve as "early warning systems" to identify and eliminate potential sources of contamination.

3M™ Petrifilm™ Plates are a convenient and reliable way to detect environmental microbial contamination. The construction of the Petrifilm plates allows them to be used for direct contact, air sampling or swab contact monitoring procedures. Our full range of Petrifilm plates can be used for environmental monitoring.

Dairy:
Dairy processors must comply with regulations as well as strict internal quality standards. They often demand a high-sensitivity coliform test that can deliver results quickly and accurately. Facilities producing dairy products will find that it is even easier to show that standards have been met using 3M™ Petrifilm™ High-Sensitivity Coliform Count Plates. Dairy processors also require methods for aerobic counts and for yeast and mould counts.

Prepared/Processed Foods:
Prepared and processed foods can be subject to post-process contamination and may contain microorganisms that are not eliminated by the processing regime. Manufacturers of prepared and processed foods may require microbial methods for enumerating aerobic, Enterobacteriaceae, coliform, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and yeast and mould counts in both raw ingredients and finished products. Our range of Petrifilm plates are available to accomplish a variety of microbial testing needs.

Meat, Poultry, Eggs and Seafood:

Meat and poultry:
All meat and poultry establishments are required to develop and implement a system of preventative controls designed to improve the safety of their products, known as HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points). Petrifilm Aerobic Count, Coliform Count, Enterobacteriaceae Count and E. coli/Coliform Count plates can help monitor microbial critical control points within the process, and to determine presence of contaminants such as E. coli

Eggs:
The regulatory approach to eggs is similar to that of meat and poultry products. Among the tests recommended for dried, liquid and frozen eggs are aerobic plate count, coliform, Enterobacteriaceae, E. coli and yeast and mould.

Fish, seafood, shellfish:
Foods in this category may be evaluated for quality, shelf life and post-process contamination using a variety of methods. Among these are aerobic plate count, coliform, thermotolerant coliform, E. coli, S. aureus and yeast and mould.

Fruit and Vegetables:
Fruit is mostly susceptible to yeast and moulds due to natural acidity of fruit. The 3M™ Petrifilm™ Yeast and Mould Count Plate can be an indicator for spoilage and the 3M™ Petrifilm™ Coliform Count Plate is an indicator of sanitation (coliforms may not grow due to low pH, but may survive). For frozen vegetables, use 3M™ Petrifilm™ Aerobic Count Plates for the Lactic Acid Bacteria method and Petrifilm Coliform count plates as an indicator of sanitation efficacy. Petrifilm Aerobic count plates and E. coli/Coliform count plates can be used as a general indicator of quality in fresh vegetables.