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Speed and accuracy are standard in today's testing regimes. Suzanne Christiansen reports
Worries over food safety and the need for speed to market have made testing regimes more rigourous, while at the same time necessitating higher accuracy. For example, Arla Foods, one of the world's largest dairies, has installed technology for measuring potential extended shelf-life (ESL) milk spoilage issues in three of its UK dairies.
Arla is using GreenLight instrumentation from Mocon to test ESL milk. GreenLight can provide results at very low bacterial loads in less than 24 hours without in-carton pre-incubation. This compares to 48 to 72 hours required by the traditional, agar-based, standard plate count method, the company says.
GreenLight is part of an instrument suite for detecting, identifying and tracking potential sources of spoilage. Uses of the instrument will likely expand to include in-process monitoring. Arla expects to reduce its overall testing...