HiTouch™ Sabouraud Dextrose Agar w/ LTHTh Flexi Plate™

Principle and Interpretation

Hitouch Flexi Plates are specially developed for the microbial testing in food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic,dairy, hospitals, water works, environmental testing etc. These plates are handy and ready to use sterile media supplied in flexible disposable plates, 55 mm in diameter. It is grid scored on the base and is irradiated to ensure perfect sterility. Medium is filled aseptically and each plate is packed in pre-sterilized plastic bag. Hitouch Flexi Plateis then packed in plastic pouch wrapping. The unique flexible plate configuration ensures close contact even with uneven surfaces. where not only counts are obtained but it is also possible to select and differentiate between groups of microorganisms like coliforms (both E. coli and non E. coli ). These plates are specially developed for microbial testing, The Flexi plate medium formula is suitable for determining the effeciency of sanitization of containers, equipment surfaces, water miscible cosmetics, etc. and the grids enable direct reading on the plates of the number of colonies per cm2.

Sabouraud Dextrose Agar with Soya Lecithin and Polysorbate 80 is the modification of formulation described by Sabouraud for determining efficiency of sterilization of container etc. with respect to yeast moulds and aciduric bacteria.

Mycological peptone provides nitrogenous compounds. Dextrose provides an energy source. The low pH favours fungal growth and inhibits contaminating bacteria from clinical specimens (2).

Some pathogenic fungi may produce infective spores which are easily dispersed in air, so examination should be carried out in safety cabinet.Lecithin and polysorbate 80 are neutralizers reported to inactivate residual disinfectants from where the sample is collected (3). Lecithin neutralizes quartenery ammonium compounds and polysorbate 80 neutralizes phenolic disinfectants, hexachlorophene formalin, and with lecithin neutralizes ethanol (4). Sodium thiosulphate neutralizes mercurial, halogens, aldehydes etc. Histidine acts as a reducing agent. Collection of samples from areas before and after the treatment with disinfectant evaluates cleaning procedures in environmental sanitation. The presence and number of fungi is determined by the appearance of colonies on the agar surface.