3M Food Safety says its 3M Petrifilm Rapid Aerobic Count Plates have received AFNOR Certification by NF Validation.
The plates had previously received validation through the AOAC Performance Tested Methods and AOAC Official Methods of Analysis programs.
The validation certifies that the plates are equivalent to or better than the reference method when it comes to enumerating aerobic microorganism levels in dairy products.
The plate detects and enumerates aerobic bacteria in just one day for most food matrices and environmental samples.
The technology, released in 2015, uses proprietary indicator technology to facilitate efficient counting of aerobic bacteria colonies, helping food companies maximize worker productivity, make intelligent cleaning decisions and improve the quality and safety of their products.
“The Rapid Aerobic Count Plates are sample-ready, which can eliminate the time-consuming, cumbersome step of preparing agar plates,” said Jason Semerad, 3M Food Safety global marketing manager.
“The plates are also compatible with the recently updated 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader for consistent, fast and efficient automated reading and recording of results.”
The 3M Petrifilm technology is also a more sustainable solution, using 75% less energy, 79% less water, producing 75% less greenhouse gases and resulting in 66 percent less waste (by weight and volume) compared to agar methods.
Getting certified
To obtain the AFNOR Certification, an expert laboratory initially confirmed the technology’s effectiveness versus conventional testing methods.
Subsequently, 18 labs from seven countries conducted collaborative testing to confirm the method’s robustness.
