Synbiosis, a world-leading manufacturer of automated microbiological systems, is pleased to announce its ProtoCOL SR automated colony counter is being used at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise, Loughry Campus, Northern Ireland to enumerate different coloured colonies of bacteria and guarantee the highest food safety standards.

Microbiologists at Loughry Campus are using the versatile ProtoCOL SR to automatically count a wide range of bacteria and yeast cells on spiral, pour and spread plates. One of the main uses of the ProtoCOL SR is to differentiate and count the numbers of red colonies from a background of blue colonies plated on selective chromogenic plates.

Edmund Slaine, a Scientific Officer at Loughry Campus commented: "We use the ProtoCOL SR system daily and find it can count a thousand colonies in seconds and can even count colonies as small as 0.5mm. However, it is the ability to count different coloured colonies on the same plate we find most useful.

Since these bacteria are isolated from meat and shellfish destined for supermarkets, being able to use the ProtoCOL SR to quickly count colonies means we can ensure food going on sale is of the highest quality."

Simon Johns, Divisional Manager for Synbiosis stated: "We are delighted to see a major food testing facility benefiting from the unrivalled colour recognition capabilities of the ProtoCOL SR. The level of quality assurance being achieved at Loughry Campus shows food microbiologists everywhere that ProtoCOL SR can confidently perform simultaneous counts of different coloured colonies, without compromising on the accuracy which is essential for ensuring food safety."