Hands-free, "pop-up," adhesive tape method for microbial sampling of meat surfaces

Microbial contamination of food is a concern to both food producers and con sumers. For the food production industry surface sampling of foods is one o f the simplest ways to monitor the microbial load. The objective of this ex periment was to investigate the feasibility of using the less expensive and quicker "Pop-up" tape method instead of the conventional swab/rinse method for the microbial sampling of meat surfaces. An analyst can place the unit on the wrist and then use both hands to lay out all the necessary material s and take the sample with one hand. The "Pop-up" tape method was able to m easure microbial loads up to 2.2 log CFU/cm(2) on meat surfaces. The conven tional swab/rinse method was able to measure up to 8.3 log CFU/cm(2) on mea t surfaces. The correlation coefficient (R) between the two methods was 0.9 1 (n=42). These data show that the "Pop-up" tape method is a viable alterna tive to other methods for estimating microbial surface contamination.