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The use of Lenticules TM for the process control of enumeration techniques in food and environmental microbiology
Author(s) -
Lightfoot N.F.,
Richardson I.R.,
Harford J.P.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 1364-5072
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2672.2001.01432.x
Subject(s) - enumeration , microbiology and biotechnology , food microbiology , biology , food science , bacteria , mathematics , combinatorics , genetics
Aims: Lenticules ™ consit of control‐dried plano convex discs in which biologically‐active materials are contained within a water‐soluble matrix. They can be produced to contain stable numbers of bacteria from 10 cfu lenticule –1 to 10 8 cfu lenticule –1 with a wide variety of organisms. These experiments were carried out to validate their use as a tool for internal quality control in quantitative microbiology. Methods and Results: The Lenticules ™ were used routinely in standard quantitative microbiological procedures across five laboratories. Results showed the materials to be stable, homogenous and capable of identifying systematic errors. Conclusions: The Lenticules ™ provide suitable, stable control materials. Significance and Impact of the Study: Routine internal quality control of quantitative measurements is greatly improved; the materials are easy to use and enable comparisons between laboratories to be made.