BIOTF Concept
Millions of routine microbiological analyses are carried out on a daily basis. The most common objects of study are biological fluids, milk, meat, poultry, food products, cosmetics, clinical samples, and swabs. Traditional methods of microbiological assay are time- and labor-consuming. As a result, they are often overdue and lack sufficient accuracy. Metrologically accurate digital microbiological tests are a key issue and a real challenge for microbiological control in the food industry and medicine.
BioTF technology allows for the measurement of viable microorganisms count in real time. The measurement is fully automated, which makes it possible to obtain accurate results quickly. The BioTF instrument and its software applications were created for different areas of rapid microbiological control and are available to a wide range of users.
BioTF technology enables accurate results to be obtained in real time, instead of the days required by traditional methods. BioTF automates microbiological measurements by eliminating sample dilution, culture media preparation, plate pouring, and colony counting. As a result, related operator errors are excluded. In the BioTF procedure, test results appear automatically in the protocol in a digital metrological format. Measurement, evaluation, and calculation data are stored on a PC and are available upon request.
The concentration of microorganisms reflects their probability of growth in culture media, within a given temperature range, time frame, and nutrient concentration. It is important to be aware of the fact that only a small share of the total microbial count will grow on culture media compared to the total number of viable microorganisms in a sample. The BioTF method allows for the estimation of the total number of viable microorganisms due to its innovative approach to this routine microbiological assay.
Metrology in Microbiology
The ability of microorganisms to constantly change their weight during their life cycle makes standard metrological methods or criteria inapplicable to microbial assay. Moreover, the chemical and physical properties of a sample containing microorganisms change in accordance with its microbial life cycle.
The Colony Forming Unit (CFU) is used to estimate the viable microbial count in a sample. Unfortunately, CFU does not fully represent microbial count because microorganisms grow in micro-colonies and aggregates. A microbial aggregate, which represents a single CFU, could consist of hundreds of cells. This might be the reason why CFU results do not correlate with microbial weight in grams. BioTF technology introduces the International System of Units into microbiology as it allows for the measurement of the real weight of microorganisms in grams. The MPN method is used to convert BioTF test results into different systems of microbial count.
The BioTF method was accredited as an international standard method for microbiological control in the dairy and poultry industries:
· In 2017, the TMC Rapid Test Expert on the BioTF Instrument was accredited as an international standard test for microbiological express control in poultry: GOST 7702.2.1-2017.
· In 2018, the Raw Milk Microbial Count Rapid Test Start on the BioTF Instrument was accredited as an international standard test: GOST 34472-2018.
BioTF technology provides the most accurate picture of the current microbial situation of an object under study in terms of microbial concentration.