Prediction of total count of aerobic microorganisms in meat and meat products by automated turbidimetry

The purpose of the study was to improve the accuracy of colony forming units (CFU) estimation by automatic instrumental turbidimetric method. Total plate count of aerobic microflora in meat and meat products were estimated by conventional plate count method. Among the 155 samples examined, 57 samples (about 37%) were selected for further investigation. In the selected samples, ten-fold reduction in number of colonies on the surface plates was met, which corresponded well to the decimal dilution procedure. From the analysis of growth curves (obtained in Bioscreen C turbidimetric system), their several parameters were calculated. On the basis of those, a multiple regression formula was developed due to high correlation between the refined conventional plate method (after rejecting the cases not following the decimal reduction) and the method relying on the analysis of growth curves.