A 56 Hour Test for Yeast & Mold Counts Becomes an AOAC Official Method
News Release

BELLEVUE, Wash., February 2003 – BioControl’s SimPlate Yeast and Mold Color Indicator (YM-CI) has been adopted as AOAC Official Method 2002.11. SimPlate YM-CI produces accurate results days faster than reference culture methods. With SimPlate YM-CI you have your results in 56-72 hours rather than 5 days required of culture methods. The faster results translate into a complete Certificate of Analysis and product release (no need to track down results after product release).

The SimPlate YM-CI collaborative study was conducted among 17 laboratories representing government as well as private industry in Europe and North America. Results demonstrated that SimPlate YM-CI was equivalent to both the FDA/BAM and ISO reference culture procedures.

“Our pursuit of AOAC Official Method status for all our tests is well known,” Philip Feldsine, president and CEO of BioControl comments. “This means our customers can select a BioControl test and feel confident that it has unsurpassed accuracy and quality results.”

SimPlate YM-CI is part of an innovative family of methods for the quantification of microorganisms in foods, beverages, and cosmetics. The SimPlate family includes tests for total aerobic bacteria, total Coliforms/E. coli, and Yeast & Mold, and Campylobacter. The SimPlate test system utilizes BioControl’s proprietary Binary Detection Technology® (BDT) and patented SimPlate device. This unique combination makes interpretation of SimPlate test results simple and accurate. Unlike plating or film methods the SimPlate device confines the sample to isolated wells, eliminating the possibility of overgrown plates. Binary Detection Technology makes SimPlate easy to read – the well is positive or negative, as indicated by a color change. Simply count the number of positive wells and refer to the SimPlate Conversion Table to convert the number of positive wells to the number of organisms. This ease-of-interpretation, offered by all SimPlate CI tests, provides consistent test results & reduces turnaround time.

Since 1985 BioControl has developed twelve AOAC Official Method validated products. Its quality management system is ISO 9001-2000 certified. BioControl’s food safety test kits are used by processors, independent and government laboratories worldwide for hygiene monitoring, quality assurance and pathogen testing.

For more information contact:
Jennifer Hawton
BioControl Systems, Inc.
Phone 425-603-1123, Ext. 118
e-mail jdhawton@biocontrolsys.com