Evaluation of the Dry Sheet Medium (Compact Dry ETBR) for Enumerating Enterobacteriaceae in Meat Samples

Compact Dry ETBR (CD-ETB, ETB; Enterobacteriaceae) , a ready-to-use and self-diffusible dry medium sheet culture system for the detection and enumeration of Enterobacteriaceae, was evaluated. A total of 35 Enterobacteriaceae strains, which were studied for the inclusivity study, grew and formed red-purple colored colonies on the CD-ETBR. When 17 gram-negative bacteria other than Enterobacteriaceae were inoculated for the exclusivity study, 2 strains grew and formed red-purple colonies, 9 strains formed colorless colonies, and 6 strains failed to grow. A total of 43 gram-positive bacteria and 3 yeasts failed to grow. The CD-ETB method was compared with the Violet Red Bile Glucose (VRBG) agar method according to ISO 21528-2 and the 3M PetrifilmTM EB (3M-EBR) method in 53 meat samples. The correlation coefficients between CD-ETBR and VRBG agar, CD-ETBR and 3M-EBR, and 3M-EBR and VRBG agar were 0.962, 0.992 and 0.960, respectively.