3M Food Safety has made software enhancements to its 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader, a peripheral device that serves as an automated alternative to manual counting and documenting colonies of bacteria on 3M Petrifilm Plates indicator tests.
The new software version 4.0 automates the imaging, interpretation and data mapping of the 3M Petrifilm Rapid Aerobic Count Plate, which debuted last year as a novel 24-hour test.
In addition, this release also makes functionality for the 3M Petrifilm Enterobacteriaceae Count Plate and 3M Petrifilm Select E. coli Count Plate globally available.
Results in four seconds
After individual 3M Petrifilm Plates are inoculated and incubated, they can be loaded into the 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader where they are electronically read and interpreted in about four seconds.
Thoroughly tested across a broad range of food types, 3M’s software-enabled technology facilitates compliance by documenting test data as well as storing individual plate images on file.
The 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader also automates logging of 128 symbology barcode labels, and allows details related to the technician, food type, food lot and dilution schemes to be electronically stored rather than transcribed by hand.
Data can also be easily exported to laboratory information management systems and other reporting tools.
“Variability in colony counts is driven by any number of factors, not limited to, lab technician interpretation differences, missed counts, differing levels of experience, multi-tasking and even time of day and fatigue.” said global marketing manager Jason Semerad.
“3M Petrifilm Plate Reader automation eliminates that variability, as well as, transcription errors, while improving overall lab productivity and audit-readiness.”
With this newly added functionality, now six of 3M’s eighteen available 3M Petrifilm Plates can be automatically interpreted by the 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader to improve lab efficiency.
