Comparison of an Automated Most-Probable-Number Technique TEMPO®TVC with Traditional Plating Methods PetrifilmTM for Estimating Populations of Total Aerobic Bacteria with Livestock Products
We compared between an automated most-probable-number technique TEMPO®TVC and traditional plating methods PetrifilmTM for estimating populations of total aerobic bacteria in various livestock products. 257 samples randomly selected in local retail stores and 87 samples inoculated with E. coli ATCC 25922, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 12868 were tested in this study. The degree of agreement was estimated according to the CCFRA (Campden and Chorleywood Food Research Association Group) Guideline 29 and the agreement indicates the difference of two kinds methods is lower than 1 log base 10(log10). The samples of hams, jerky products, ground meat products, milks, ice creams, infant formulas, and egg heat formed products were showed above 95% in the agreement of methods. In contrast, proportion of agreement on meat extract products, cheeses and sausages were 93.1%, 92.1%, 89.1%, respectively. One press ham and five sausages containing spice and seasoning, two pork cutlets containing spice and bread crumbs, two meat extract product and two natural cheeses and one processing cheese with a high fat content, and one ice cream containing chocolate of all samples showed the discrepancy. Our result suggest that TEMPO®TVC system is efficient to analyses total aerobic bacteria to compare manual method in time-consuming and laborious process except livestock products having limit of detection.