Pinnacle brings together the firm’s experience in the development, manufacture and supply of DCM and the expanded plate pouring capabilities at the company’s UK headquarters.
The result is DCM prepared as ready-to-use plates by the manufacturer, said Lab M.
The firm said because it is made and poured in the same place it reduces the number of people in the supply chain to assure quality of the medium and the plates poured.
Pre-poured plates benefit
Wendy Martindale, director of sales and marketing at Lab M, said the difference with the Pinnacle product is that it is highly unusual in industry as most plate pourers buy in their DCM.
“Pre-poured plates generally offer the convenience of being supplied ready to use so they can go straight into the food laboratory’s testing process without the need to make up media, pour and store the plates in house,” she told FoodQualityNews.com.
“Having consistent, reliable media immediately available, especially those media used routinely in high throughput testing, is critically important as labs focus on increasing productivity and reducing turnaround times.”
Lab M said it was offering customers a wider choice by extending services to include pre-poured plates.
Producing and pouring on the same site means a bespoke plate pouring service can be offered, said the firm, meaning more flexibility.
Using ready prepared media
Martindale said ready prepared media are especially applicable where there are large numbers of routine samples to be tested.
“Labs reduce the burden on their own media kitchens and the intensive time required to make up, sterilise and QC their own media,” she said.
“With the onus of quality being on the supplier of pre-poured plates, there is also no risk of producing batches of media that fall outside QC specifications, with the associated cost and rework that can happen from time to time when making up from scratch.
“Access to a commercial supply of ready prepared media also means it is easier to cope with fluctuations in workload.”
The first products to be available in the Pinnacle range are focused on food industry applications.
Listeria Chromogenic Agar for the isolation of Listeria monocytogenes and Tryptone Bile Glucuronide Agar for the isolation of E.coli will be closely followed by CSIM for the isolation of Cronobacter sakazakii from milk and milk products and chromogenic ABC medium for the isolation of Salmonellae.
Martindale said it has a range of pre-poured plates available which are added to almost on a weekly basis.
“We’ve started with products where there is particularly strong customer demand, and which covers some of the main pathogen testing requirements of the food industry for Listeria, E.coli and Salmonella.
“Most importantly, we are encouraging customers to discuss their particular requirements with us to see how Lab M can help.”