Evaluation of the TEMPO(®) most probable number technique for the enumeration of Enterobacteriaceae in food and dairy products

The aim of this study was to evaluate the TEMPO(®) EB automated most probable number (MPN) system for the enumeration of Enterobacteriaceae in comparison with three standard laboratory methods.Pure cultures were used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the TEMPO(®) EB test. These studies indicated that Enterobacteriaceae were reliably detected with a detection limit below 10CFU, whilst non-Enterobacteriaceae strains gave negative results at all inoculum levels tested. A total of 209 food, dairy and environmental samples were tested using the four methods, and results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the TEMPO(®) EB and either the MPN, pour plate or spread plate techniques.It is considered that, with a small number of exceptions, TEMPO(®) EB is a suitable method for the analysis of routine food, dairy and environmental samples as it has many advantages, and the results obtained are equivalent to those of standard methods.The TEMPO(®) system could provide significant benefits to Food Water and Environmental Microbiology laboratories, by responding to food and dairy hygiene problems rapidly (up to 4 days sooner than previously), reducing media and consumable costs and making savings in hands-on staff time.