Evaluation of Petrifilm methods for enumeration of aerobic flora and coliforms in a wide range of foods.

Petrifilm is a ready-to-use alternative to traditional microbial enumeration methods. The Petrifilm Aerobic Count Plate (ACP) and Coliform Count Plate (CCP) were compared with standard methods for the enumeration of the aerobic mesophilic flora and coliform bacteria in 91 foods covering a wide range of different food commodities. There was good correlation between the Petrifilm ACP and the standard aerobic colony count method (r = 0.989) and between the Petrifilm CCP and the standard Violet Red Bile Agar plating method (r = 0.872). In both cases, the Petrifilm methods had a better repeatability than the standard methods. The Petrifilm ACP and CCP were shown to be practical and accurate alternatives to standard enumeration methods in a wide range of foods, with benefits of saving time, labour and incubator space.