Luxcel Biosciences® in association with their partner, Mocon® Inc. have developed the GreenLight™ 900 series, a cost-effective screening platform for rapid, same-day detection of bacteria in food and beverage samples. Food processors will now have a faster, less labour intensive screening method compared to traditional agar methods. Currently, GreenLight™ can detect a TVC level in raw meats of ~1x106 CFU/g in under 5 hours, including sample preparation time.
The technology is fluorescence based using oxygen sensing probes that detects bacteria by monitoring bacterial respiration. The technology measures bacterial oxygen consumption and equates that to viable microbial load. As microbes grow, they consume oxygen, resulting in an increase in probe signal. The time taken to reach this increase in reagent signal (threshold point) is used to calculate initial microbial load. The greater the initial microbial load, the faster the time to threshold.
The GreenLight™ systems are simple to operate, less labour intensive with results recorded automatically within the software removing the need for tedious counting and subjective observation of colony numbers. It has shown excellent correlation to the traditional agar methods (ISO:4833:2003).
Two models of the GreenLight™ 900 series are currently available. Model 960 (AOAC-RI-PTM certified) is a 96 well micro-titre plate based assay that is suitable for high through-put screening for bacterial load but also highly suited for more R&D based studies for example anti-microbial analysis and food additive analysis such as spices etc. and study of the effect of the additive on microbial growth. Model 910 is a vial based system for facilities with lower through-put requirements.