Rapid Same-Day Food Bacteria Detection System: GreenLight™ 900 Series

An increasing appreciation for the importance of food and microbiological safety has resulted in a demand for a rapid, high-throughput method for total viable count/aerobic plate count (TVC) (APC’s) quantification to deal with the increasing numbers of samples that require testing.

The industry standard for TVC determination (ISO.4833.2033), also known as aerobic plate count, is widely used but presents users with some very significant drawbacks. The method is both material and labor intensive, requiring the preparation and analysis of multiple agar plates per sample. More importantly, the method is slow, with 48-72 hours typically required for a definitive result.

MOCON, in association with Luxcel Biosciences has addressed these limitations with the development of the GreenLight™ 900 Series, a breakthrough low-cost AOAC approved system with reduced labor and material, providing microbiological analysis in just hours.

How does it work? (The really simple explanation.)
GreenLight™ sensor technology is based on oxygen sensing. As microbes grow, they consume O₂. The system measures bacterial O2 consumption and equates that to viable microbial load (live bacteria). A White Paper on the system is available.

It’s accurate (for example in ground beef samples, Pearsons Correlation Coefficient = 0.961) and available in two models. It’s simple to operate, with a variety of testing protocols covering a wide contamination range. Most importantly it provides same-day results, including sample preparation time and incubation.

In comparison to the conventional approach GreenLight™ 900 series provides a much improved ‘time-to-result’ with =103 CFU/g detectable in ~12 hours in comparison to the 49 hours required by the standard method (=108 CFU/g are detectable within 1 hour).