3M Food Safety has introduced the 3M™ Petrifilm™ Plate Reader Advanced, a new automation technology that gives food safety professionals new options to rapidly and accurately image, count and document microbiological colonies on 3M Petrifilm Plates indicator tests. By rapidly automating the colony-counting step of 3M Petrifilm Plates, the 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced saves food safety labs time and increases productivity.

The new 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced is a small, peripheral device containing a five-megapixel camera and versatile bar code reader. The device utilizes fixed artificial intelligence networks to enumerate 3M Petrifilm Plates. 3M Petrifilm Plates are inserted into the device, with imaging and information automatically displaying on a USB-connected computer in less than six seconds, processing up to 900 plates per hour. The device can enumerate 10 3M Petrifilm Plates and the Staph Express Disk and includes software that allows technicians to edit results and add other relevant sample information. A study conducted found up to 94 percent reduced time to enumerate 3M Petrifilm Plates when using the 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced.^*