Collaborative study comparing the spiral plate and aerobic plate count methods.

The spiral plate count method is a semiautomated plating technique that greatly reduces manpower and material costs normally associated with the pour plating technique. In this collaborative study, 8 laboratories compared the spiral and pour plating techniques, using 4 samples each of 3 products: frozen pumpkin pie, frozen chicken pot pie, and shampoo. The results show that 10 of the 12 comparisons of means of the pour and spiral methods were not significantly different; 2 values were significant at alpha = 0.01. Overall, the components of variance were less than that of the current milk standard, and the replicate per cent coefficient of variation was satisfactory. This study indicates that the spiral plate method is an acceptable alternative to the pour plate method; the spiral plate method has been adopted as official first action.