COMPARISON OF THE PETRIFILM YEAST AND MOLD CULTURE FILM METHOD TO CONVENTIONAL METHODS FOR ENUMERATING YEASTS AND MOLDS IN FOODS

Petrifilm(TM) Yeast and Mold (YM) plates were compared to acidified potato dextrose agar (APDA) and chloramphenicol-supplemented plate count agar (CPCA) for its suitability to enumerate yeasts and molds in 13 groups of food products. These products consisted of beans (dry and frozen, green), corn meal, flour (wheat), fruit (apple), a meat/vegetable entree (chicken pot pie), a precooked meat (beef), milk (dehydrated, nonfat), nuts (pecans), pasta, potatoes (dehydrated), precooked sausage, and a spice (black pepper). Correlation coefficients of Petrifilm(TM) YM plates versus APDA and CPCA pour plates for recovering total yeasts and molds from a composite of the thirteen test foods were, respectively, 0.961 and 0.974. Individually, Petrifilm(TM) YM plate counts were equivalent or higher than APDA and CPCA for some food groups and lower for other food groups. Because food particle interference can make enumeration of yeast and mold colonies on Petrifilm(TM) YM plates difficult for some food groups, potential food interference will need to be evaluated for each food group tested.