The Neutec/IUL Flash and Go has been shown to speed up counting of colony-forming units (CFU) and to simplify data manipulation, analysis and interpretation.
A study recently published by Fort Valley State University compared manual counting of E coli ATCC 700728 colonies and automated counting of the same bacteria with the IUL Flash and Grow unit.
In the study, an Neutec/IUL Flash and Grow automated colony counter was used to enumerate E coli ATCC 700728 colonies and its performance was compared with manual counting on spiral plates.
The spiral plating was performed using an IUL Eddy Jet.
The base 10 logarithms of these colony counts were used for statistical analysis.
Linear-regression analysis for pooled data and the log differences between the manual and automated counts were determined.
The results were analysed to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of the colony counter.
The Flash and Grow is an automated colony counter that grows and adapts to specific micro lab needs.
It can be upgraded at any time to comply with new levels of automation, security and features.
Modern LED illumination is combined with a smart but user-friendly colony-counting software (installed on Windows Vista or any XP-based computer) which, together with a high resolution camera, can detect and count colonies of approximately 1/450in (0.07mm).
The advanced module offers colour and size discrimination, easily set with a unique drag and drop interface.
The researchers at Fort Valley demonstrated that the Neutec/IUL Flash and Go automated colony counter is an effective, accurate alternative to the standard method of colony counting.
Moreover, the study claimed the use of the colony counter increased the overall efficiency by reducing the time devoted to conventional manual plate-count and made tasks easier for data manipulation, analysis and interpretation.
Many laboratories have been using the Flash and Grow/Eddy Jet combination to conduct their routine microbiology assays.
Dustin Morgenroth, San Antonio lab manager at Food Safety Net Services, said: 'We recently switched from another brand of spiral plater to the Eddy Jet.
'While doing our correlation study we ran both units simultaneously and quickly noticed that we were starting the third sample on the Eddy Jet while the first sample finished on the other brand.
'With our sample volume, this equates to a significant time-saving.' The Eddy Jet Spiral Plating System is a fully programmable spiral inoculation instrument, with accuracy and reproducibility of greater than 99 per cent.
The Eddy Jet Spiral Plater uses a gamma-irradiated disposable micro-syringe for each new sample, eliminating cross-contamination and the need for a vacuum source or washing steps.
Since the samples come in contact with only the disposable low-cost micro-syringe throughout the process, there is no risk of carryover of sanitising chemicals, such as hypochlorite.
The IUL Flash and Grow automated colony counter and the Eddy Jet spiral plater reduce costs of labour, media and incubation space.
