Is that water safe?

For food and beverage companies, testing water samples for the presence of coliforms is one of the most important preventative measures in the battle against outbreaks of harmful bacteria. In response to growing demand for solutions, Biotrace International has launched two new water testing kits.

The leading manufacturer and supplier of specialist microbiology and life science products has added the two new water tests to its rapid hygiene monitoring product range - Colilert and Colilert-18. Both products can detect coliforms and E.coli in a water sample in 24 hours or less. Manufactured by IDEXX, the Colilert product range is currently available in Europe through Biotrace Fred Baker - the UK distribution centre for Biotrace International - and through Biotrace's French subsidiary, Biotrace.

Biotrace claims that Colilert is highly sensitive with a detection of 1 cfu/100ml and is suitable for water samples to determine the presence or absence of coliforms. These could include potable waters, process waters, cleaning waters and any water used in food and beverage production. Such testing could form part of a company's overall HACCP regime.

The company claims that the test is a well-proven product that provides significantly faster and more reliable results than traditional methods and requires less than one minute of hands-on time. It is approved by over 25 international organisations including US EPA, AOAC, IBWA and EBWA and is mentioned in the new Report 71 2002.

The kits can be used in two ways - to give a presence/absence result and for quantification using an MPN method. For a presence or absence result for coliforms, a sample of water is collected and the user simply adds a unit dose of prepared media to the sample and incubates for 18 or 24 hours (Colilert-18 or Colilert respectively). The sample changes to yellow to indicate the presence of coliforms and fluoresces under UV light if E.coli is present. To quantify the number of coliforms and E.coli present, the company says that the IDEXX's Quanti-Tray or Quanti-Tray2000 can be used.

Peter Roberts, joint managing director at Biotrace Fred Baker, explained the benefits of using these systems: "The speed and simplicity of the tests mean companies can react to a problem much more quickly as the result is available in less than 24 hours. This means a company can feel more in control of their water system and overall production quality".​

Biotrace International​ is a leading manufacturer and supplier of specialist microbiology and life science products. The group has leading brands such as Biotrace, Cogent, Ruskinn and Lucigen. Headquartered in the UK, the company has subsidiaries in North America and France and a comprehensive international representation of over 90 distributors worldwide.