Rapid Analysis of Microorganisms Using Flow Cytometry

Abstract

A consistent limitation to the implementation of proactive product quality management has been the delay associated with microbiological analysis. Although standard microbiological techniques allow the detection of single bacteria, amplification of the signal is required through growth of a single cell into a colony on a plate. This process can be relatively time-consuming. For example, where an organism has a mean doubling time of approximately 30 min, the development of a colony containing 10⁶ organisms (i.e. visible to the naked eye) will take between 18 and 24 h. In the case of yeast, a common spoilage organism, this period will be considerably longer, taking 3–7 days depending upon the yeast strain. In the case of final product testing, especially for products with a short shelf-life, microbiological data may not therefore be available until several days after the product has been released to the market. This can lead to product recall, with associated cost implications and reduction in customer confidence.