Immediate Benefits Of Real-Time Microbial Monitoring

By Troy Tillman, Business Manager, TSI Inc.

By Troy Tillman, Business Manager, TSI Inc.

Companies producing medicines and biotech products are concerned with airborne microbial contamination. They need to ensure that products and people are kept safe. The traditional, accepted method to test for microorganisms at critical locations in a process is the use of Active Air Samplers or Settling Plates. Typically, 1-meter-cubed samples are taken onto agar plates and sent to a lab for culturing. The Colony Forming Units (CFUs) results come back from the lab after 4-10 days. Only after this waiting period will end users know whether the manufacturing environment was in control. Recently, the commercialization of a technology based on Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) has made it possible to look at airborne viable microbial counts in real time. The potential to instantly respond to an airborne microbiological event when it happens is exciting – and beneficial.