The company that brought you the family of 3M™ Petrifilm™ Plate products — the easy-to-use, sample-ready plates that allow food processors to perform on-site microbial testing quickly and efficiently — proudly introduces a new plate designed to test for environmental Listeria.  

The new 3M™ Petrifilm™ Environmental Listeria Plates from 3M Microbiology offer a number of advantages to the meat processing industry:

• 27 to 31 hours from sample to result — Designed for use in all food processing and packing operations, Petrifilm Environmental Listeria Plates are a fast, easy-to-use alternative to current methods of Listeria detection. Other methods can take several days and may require many steps. With the familiar Petrifilm Plate design, meat processors can have test results within 27 to 31 hours of sampling. They are not only faster; they cost less than other testing methods, the company relays.

• Easy- to- use Petrifilm Plate format — The new Listeria test design is familiar to the meat processing industry since Petrifilm Plates for detecting other microbes have been used for years. Sample preparation is fast and easy. No complicated techniques or training are required.

• No specialized equipment purchase — No specialized equipment or expensive instruments are needed for testing. Colonies appear on the plate just as they do on other Petrifilm Plates.  

The plates can yield qualitative, semi-quantitative, and quantitative results:
1. A simple “yes/no” result
2. A “high/medium/low” result
3. An actual numerical result

It is safer to conduct in-house methods since there is no enrichment step. Some methods for environmental Listeria testing involve an enrichment process during which large numbers of Listeria are grown. The Petrifilm Environmental Listeria Plate method does not use an enrichment step, thereby reducing the risk of contamination.

Petrifilm Environmental Listeria Plates offer results in 27 to 31 hours, with no outside lab costs, no enrichment broths, and no special equipment or techniques. Results are obtained quicker with less risk and expense.  

For more information about how meat processors can simplify environmental testing using the new 3M™ Petrifilm™ Environmental Listeria Plates, visit www.3M.com/microbiology , or call the 3M Customer Service Helpline at (800) 228-3957. NP  

3M Microbiology, 3M Center, Building 0275-05-W-05, St. Paul, MN 55144-1000; phone: (800) 228-3957, microbiology@mmm.com, www.3M.com/microbiology.
3M and Petrifilm are trademarks of 3M Co.