Abstract:The capabilities of the microbial colony counting system (MCCS) including colony determination and counting abilities were examined in this study. Four different microorganisms including Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Canidia albicans and Aspergillus brasiliensis were used as testing strains to examine the consistency of the traditional visual counting method and the instrumental counting method, and the influence of impurities in a sample on instrumental reading. The results showed that there was a significant (R2=0.85~0.99, p<0.05) positive correlation between the instrument readings and visual counting results. The instrument can realize real-time monitoring during the growth of microorganisms, and when the total number of colonies exceeds the limit, provides early warning displays 3D images of each point on the petri dish. The instrumental reading combined with manual judgment can distinguish better colonies and impurities and allow an inoculation recovery rate of 105%~155%. When the MCCS system was applied to actual powdered test samples, the result showed that the instrumental readings were close to the visual readings with the consistency rate of 94%, and the instrument was even more sensitive. Therefore, the MCCS can be well applied to the rapid and accurate quantitative detection of the total number of colonies in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic areas.
