Development of novel Alicyclobacillus spp. isolation medium

Aim: To develop a new isolation medium with higher recovery rates of Alicyclobacillus spp. Methods and Results: SK agar was developed with optimized incubation temperature, pH, acidulant, Tween 80 concentration and divalent cation addition. Results indicate that detection of Alicyclobacillus spp. by SK agar was significantly higher ( P > 0.05) than those obtained by K agar, orange serum agar, and potato dextrose agar. Conclusions: Current media used for Alicyclobacillus spp. isolation still resulted in high numbers of false negative products. The sensitivity of SK agar to Alicyclobacillus spp. allows detection of low numbers of Alicyclobacillus spp. and also provides a more higher isolation results compared with currently used media. Significance and Impact of the Study: SK agar will be useful to the fruit juice industry to obtain more accurate numbers of contaminant Alicyclobacillus spp. With this media, false negative samples can be reduced, and the likelihood of exported products being rejected can be greatly reduced.