Coliforms are gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, non-spore forming bacteria and commonly found in animal intestines and soil. The term “coliform” refers to enteric bacteria found in food stuff such as meat, shellfish, dairy products, other foods and in particular water.
Bacteria such as Shigella, Salmonella, Yersinia, Citrobacter, Klebsiella, and Enterobacter are all coliforms, but the most recognized coliform is Escherichia coli. Testing for the presence of coliform is important in the food industry especially in monitoring water quality.
Advantages of using CompactDry CFR to test for coliforms in raw dairy products and heat processed dairy products.
Compact Dry CFR is a ready-to-use dry media sheets comprising culture medium and a cold-soluble gelling agent, rehydrated by inoculating 1 ml diluted sample into the centre of the selfdiffusible medium. This is a ready to use, chromogenic plate for the enumeration of Coliforms. Following incubation at 35±1°C for 16-18h Coliforms grow to give blue/blue-green colonies due to chromogens contained in the medium.
Monitoring and identification of coliforms is used at each step of the food production process as a quality control parameter. The CompactDry CFR selective media contains the chromogenic enzyme substrate X-Gal which result in a blue to blue/green colonies. CompactDry CFR enables easy culture and coliform count in dairy products and swab based environmental testing for surfaces and production areas.
