Easy Plate AC plate for testing the total aerobic count | Kikkoman

1. Introduction to the Easy Plate culture plate

- Easy Plate is a convenient ready-prepared culture plate that needs no preparation or sterilisation. Easy Plate is an easy-to-use alternative to preparing culture media in house with traditional culture plates, saving time and effort and reducing waste.

- The Easy Plate AC is a colony-counting plate developed by Kikkoman Biochemifa (Japan), designed specifically to quantify the total aerobic count in food, drinking water, cosmetic and other environmental samples.

- Using Easy Plate as a food microbiology test tool – with a volume of only about 1/20 of a conventional petri dish – saves space and lets you carry out more tests in your existing incubator space. Easy Plate is pre-packaged and, right after opening the packaging, you can place the sample suspension on the medium and start incubation.

- The plate is designed as a dry medium sheet that is already set and ready to use immediately, with no need to prepare or sterilise the medium.

2. Specifications of the Easy Plate AC plate

- Product name: Easy Plate AC culture plate

- Product code: 61973

- Application: testing of the total aerobic bacteria count

- Incubation time: 48 ± 2 hours

- Incubation temperature: 35 ± 1℃

- Storage conditions (unopened): 2 - 8℃

- After opening: After opening the pack, fold the open end of the pack at least twice and seal it with tape. Store in a refrigerator (2 to 8℃) and use within 3 months.

- Shelf life 18 months from the date of manufacture

- Certification: AOAC RI PTM certified, MicroVal certified, NordVal certified

3. Principle

The Easy Plate AC contains a dry culture medium and a colour indicator. When the sample (1 mL of sample solution or dilution) is inoculated onto the plate surface:

- The sample soaks evenly into the dry medium layer, dissolving the medium.

- Aerobic bacteria grow and form colonies with a characteristic colour, easy to observe and count.

- Results are read after 48 hours of incubation at a suitable temperature (usually 35–37°C).

4. Key advantages of the Easy Plate AC plate

- Convenient & fast: no need to prepare the medium and no need to sterilise equipment, saving laboratory time.

- High accuracy: gives results equivalent to the standard colony-count method on agar (PCA).

- Easy to use: compact design and simple handling, suitable for small laboratories or on-site rapid testing facilities.

- Safe & hygienic: limits direct contact with the culture medium and reduces the risk of cross-contamination.

- Space & cost saving: each box holds 100 plates and does not take up as much storage space as traditional agar media.

- Colonies turn red, which makes them easy to observe and count, even in the presence of food residues or other pigmented material.

- High correlation with colony-count agar across many different food types.

5. Applications

Kikkoman's Easy Plate AC is widely used in many fields of testing:

- Food industry: testing the total aerobic bacteria count in meat, fish, processed products, milk and dairy products, confectionery, fruit and vegetables, and seafood.

- Beverage & drinking water industry: quantifying bacteria in purified water, mineral water and bottled water.

- Cosmetics & pharmaceuticals: testing the level of microbial contamination in products and raw materials.

- Environmental hygiene testing: assessing the quality of air, production surfaces and processing tools in a plant.

- QC/QA laboratories: used in routine quality control at production and processing facilities.

6. Interpretation of results

A. Count any colony that has spread into a single colony, counting by the dark zone at the centre of the colony.

* Do not count thin, extremely small colonies scattered over an area in which the colony has spread.

B. Where there are many colonies, count the dark zone at the centre of the colony as a single colony. In example B, the colony has 4 dark zones, so it is counted as 4 colonies.

7. Examples

- Bacterial strains on the Easy Plate

- Easy Plate plates on food sample matrices

- Incubation conditions: 35℃, 48 hours (Diluent: phosphate buffer solution).

- These colours are examples only.

PacificLAB is the official distributor of Kikkoman Easy Plate products in Vietnam. Please contact us for a quotation and detailed information about this product.