However, the real cost of the traditional agar pouring method also includes:
- Labor for medium preparation
- Autoclaving equipment (autoclave)
- Operating electricity
- Laboratory space
- Equipment maintenance costs
- The cost of handling errors and repeat tests
When all these factors are added up, the actual total cost is often far higher than expected.
That is why more and more businesses are switching to Shimadzu Compact Dry plates as a faster, simpler and more economical microbiological testing solution. Compact Dry is a ready-to-use dry culture plate, requiring no medium preparation and no autoclaving before use.
1. Saving labor costs
The traditional agar pouring method
To perform one microbiological test, the technician must:
- Weigh out chemicals
- Prepare the medium
- Adjust pH
- Dispense the medium into bottles
- Autoclave
- Cool down
- Pour plates
- Wait for setting
- Store
The whole process can take 2–4 hours per batch of medium.
Compact Dry
With Compact Dry:
- Open the packaging
- Drop 1 mL of sample directly
- Incubate the sample
- Count the colonies
The sample automatically spreads evenly over the surface of the dry medium and gels within seconds.
Practical benefits
Businesses can reduce:
- 50–80% of handling time
- 30–60% of testing labor costs
Especially useful for:
- Food factories
- Water bottling plants
- QC quality control departments
- Contract testing laboratories
2. Saving culture media costs
The traditional method
- Laboratories usually have to stock: PCA, VRBA, TBX, XLD, DG18, PDA, MRS and many other media.
- Common problems:
+ Expiration
+ Surplus mixed medium must be discarded
+ Preparation errors
+ Losses during agar pouring
Compact Dry
- Compact Dry is manufactured ready-made and fully packaged.
- Advantages:
- No preparation needed
- No losses incurred
- No large chemical inventory to keep
- Long shelf life
- Room-temperature storage for many Compact Dry product lines.
Practical benefits
Businesses typically reduce:
- 20–40% of media costs
- Almost completely eliminating the medium they have to discard
3. No autoclave investment or operation needed
The hidden costs of an autoclave
A sterilization system needs:
- Initial investment cost
- Electricity
- Water
- Periodic maintenance
- Equipment inspection
- Calibration
In addition, several other issues arise:
- Operating time
- Staff assigned to it
- The risk of breakdowns
Compact Dry
Compact Dry is a dry medium prepared in advance.
Users do not need to:
- Prepare medium
- Autoclave the medium
- Pour petri plates
This removes almost the entire set of steps related to the autoclave.
Practical benefits
Businesses can save:
- Tens to hundreds of millions of dong in equipment investment
- Monthly electricity and water costs
- Annual maintenance and calibration costs
4. Reducing laboratory space
The agar pouring method
A traditional microbiology room usually needs:
- A medium preparation area
- A sterilization area
- An agar pouring area
- A medium storage area
- A chemical store
The floor space needed is relatively large.
Compact Dry
Thanks to its compact design and ready-to-use dry medium, Compact Dry needs only a very small space for storage and sample incubation. Compact Dry's technical documentation also highlights the "small and compact plate" advantage, which significantly reduces the space needed for storage, testing and sample incubation.
Practical benefits
Businesses can:
- Reduce the microbiology room footprint by 30–50%
- Optimize the production floor
- Set up the QC room right inside the factory
Example cost calculation for a food business
Suppose the business performs 1,000 microbiological tests per month. The costs incurred with the traditional method:
* When switching to Compact Dry
- Total microbiological testing costs can fall by 30–50% depending on the size of the laboratory.
Conclusion
- If a business is still using the traditional agar pouring method, the real cost lies not only in the culture media but also in labor, the autoclave, electricity and laboratory space.
- With the Shimadzu Compact Dry plate, businesses can:
✓ Reduce handling time
✓ Reduce labor costs
✓ No medium preparation
✓ No autoclave
✓ Save laboratory space
✓ Standardize test results
✓ Increase QC room productivity
This is why more and more food, beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceutical factories choose Compact Dry as a fast, accurate and cost-saving microbiological testing solution.