Microbial detection.

There is a widespread need for commercial instrumentation for the rapid and inexpensive detection of microbial contamination of food, industrial waste water and clinical samples. A large number of detection methods have been developed utilizing the optical, electrochemical, biochemical and physical properties of microorganisms. The need for a device which can produce a rapid, accurate, sensitive, real-time analysis for clinical, industrial and environmental applications has led to considerable progress being achieved in recent years in the development of biosensors for microbial detection. This intense research has resulted in the commercialization of several instruments. Techniques used for the quantification of microorganisms are reviewed under the general categories of non-bioelectrochemical and bioelectrochemical methods.