“The GreenLight technology will be appealing to most quality control and laboratory professionals because it simplifies, and therefore cuts time out of, the sample prep phase. Depending on the expected bacterial load, results can be obtained between minutes and eight hours,” said Mark Theno, food safety product manager at Mocon.
“This is significantly faster than the agar or film plate methods, which typically require 48 hours to achieve a meaningful microbial count. Shorter testing cycles provide packers and processors with the potential of getting their perishable food items to the consumer in less time.”
The GreenLight unit provides an aerobic plate count (APC) or total viable count (TVC) of a food sample’s microbial load by using a sensing assay or vial. As bacteria in the test sample multiply and respire, they consume oxygen. The change in oxygen is used to calculate the original sample’s colony forming units per gram (CFU/g) for solids or per millilitre for liquids.
Additionally, the unit has a bench-top footprint and an easy-to-use PC software interface with multiple measurement modes. It can also generate a unique ID for each test making it easy to track specific vials in a busy work environment.
The GreenLight 910 is awaiting qualification by AOAC International, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, US, which provides validation and conformity assessment of commercial and analytical methods.
The new unit accompanies the GreenLight 960, introduced by Mocon last year for larger labs requiring higher throughput.