Sometimes innovation in food microbiology means doing less

We weren’t looking for another plate

When we evaluated Kikkoman Easy Plate™, what interested us wasn’t simply replacing one prepared media plate with another. The question was:

Could we remove steps from our microbiology workflow while maintaining the reliable, high-quality results we needed under accreditation?

A few things stood out from our evaluation:

• No spreader –Easy Plate uses a hydrophobic ring designed to allow the sample to spread across the growth area without a separate spreading tool or step.
• Simpler E. coli and coliform interpretation –Easy Plate EC differentiates E. coli and other coliforms by colony colour, with results following a 24 ± 1-hour incubation. There’s no need to interpret gas bubbles or extend incubation.
• Fewer steps for Staphylococcus aureus- Easy Plate SA produces distinguishable blue S. aureus colonies after a 24 ± 1-hour incubation and eliminates the disc step required by some conventional approaches.
• A practical route to automated colony counting – Kikkoman’s Colony Counting System uses downloadable software compatible with a Brother scanner available at any Best Buy or Amazon rather than a dedicated proprietary plate reader.

It sounds small. But multiply one eliminated step by hundreds or thousands of plates each year and it translates to meaningful efficiency gains.

It worked for us. So why keep it to ourselves?

The change was positive for our laboratory, particularly in efficiency, ease of use and interpretation. That led to another question; Many of our customers already perform microbiological testing internally to complement the testing they send to accredited laboratories. If this technology could improve our workflow, why couldn’t it improve theirs?

That ultimately led Luminultra to partner with Kikkoman Biochemifa to make Easy Plate more accessible to food processors and laboratories across Canada and the United States. We weren’t necessarily looking for another product to sell, we used the technology in our own laboratory first. And when we saw value, we didn’t want to gatekeep it.

Food microbiology labs are being asked to do more

Food processors today are balancing increasing retailer and customer expectations, tighter labour resources, supply chain uncertainty and pressure to get more from existing food safety budgets.

That doesn’t always mean buying more equipment or adding more testing. Sometimes the opportunity is simply making the testing you’re already doing easier. The feedback we’ve heard from laboratories adopting Easy Plate has been consistent:

Save technician time. Simplify the workflow. Reduce unnecessary steps. And have another validated supply option available when disruption occurs. Those aren’t flashy innovations, but they are practical ones, and that’s an important reminder when evaluating new microbiology methods. The best innovation isn’t always a completely new test or a major piece of laboratory automation:

• Sometimes it’s removing a spreader.
• Eliminating a secondary step.
• Getting an actionable result sooner.
• Making automation accessible without another major capital equipment purchase.

Multiply those small efficiencies across hundreds or thousands of microbiology tests every year, and they stop being small.

For any food processor or microbiology laboratory reviewing its plating workflow, I think there’s a simple question worth asking:

Is there a better way to do this?

We asked it in our own lab first. Now we’re happy to share what we learned. And don’t take our word for it, try it in your own space against your existing workflow to see if the benefits are worth switching.