Comparison of a simple butterfat agar medium with other media used for isolation and enumeration of lipolytic bacteria from dairy products.

A nutrient agar medium containing 0.1% of a low melting point fraction of butterfat was shown to be suitable for detection, enumeration and isolation of lipolytic bacteria from milk. Bacterial growth was not inhibited by the butterfat and lipolytic reactions were clearly visible and easily interpreted. Lipolytic counts on the butterfat agar compared favourably with lipolytic counts obtained with other commonly used media.