With many food companies having limited personnel and technology resources to determine exactly why they are having product spoilage issues, Cherney Microbiological Services, Ltd. has teamed with MOCON, Inc. to help provide answers.

“The best way to rapidly identify the cause of shelf life issues is to fuse the latest in measurement capability with rich, analytical expertise. By combining MOCON’s GreenLight technology with Cherney’s three decades of food testing expertise, we will be able to get to the root of the spoilage problem so that the processor can correct it,” said Debra Cherney, founder and chief executive officer.

MOCON’s GreenLight instruments rapidly screen for presence and number of aerobic microbes. The system is ideal for quality assurance for food and pharmaceutical product testing. The break-through system uses a novel oxygen sensor for measuring total viable count (TVC) and some “indicator” organisms. Typical results are obtained in 1 to 15 hours compared to the 48 to 72 hour testing period required by traditional plate count methods.

“Standard microbial screening methods will tell you what is happening, but not why and when it’s happening or how it affects shelf-life. That’s why it’s important to bring food testing expertise into the equation. MOCON’s GreenLight instrumentation not only significantly reduces test times but offers a closer look at spoilage mechanisms. This gives our clients the ability to move rapidly into ‘food detective’ phase,” said Alan Traylor, business manager, microbial detection, MOCON.

For more information, visit www.cherneymicro.com and www.mocon.com.