A comparative study of automated TEMPO® rapid method with IS/ISO method for enumeration of microorganisms in different dairy products

Abstract

Recently numerous automated microbiological methods have been developed which aims to provide accurate, precise, and rapid test results, but their performance needs to be established before being used for sample analysis. The objective of the study is to evaluate the comparison between an automated rapid technique “TEMPO†and a conventional method for enumeration of microorganisms in the Skimmed Milk Powder, Milk, Infant Milk Food and Paneer. The samples were artificially contaminated with reference microbial cultures for the study. The study was done for Total Aerobic Count as per IS 5402, enumeration of Coliform as per IS 5401 (Part-1), Yeast and Mould count as per IS 5403, and enumeration of Escherichia coli as per IS 5887 (Part-3). All samples were analyzed by both TEMPO and IS methods. The Acceptability Limit (AL) is set at ± 0.5 log10 units as per ISO 16140-2: 2016. Acceptability Limit is expressed as a difference between the reference and the alternative method. Logarithmic differences between the results obtained from two methods are d†0.5 log for Aerobic count, Yeast and Mould count, Total Coliform count and Escherichia coli count. Statistical analysis of the results have shown good rate of agreement for all artificially contaminated samples for the two methods, when counted for Aerobic count at 30°C for 40-48 hours, Coliform count at 30°C for 24-27 hours, Yeast and Mould count at 25°C for 72-76 hours and Escherichia coli count at 37°C for 22-27 hours.