3M Food Safety was recently named a 2022 Edison Awards™ gold winner in the Commercial Technology category for its 3M™ Petrifilm™ Plate Reader Advanced technology. The Edison Awards recognize innovations that make a positive impact in the world. In the last decade, 3M Food Safety has achieved six Edison Awards for providing productivity and efficiency innovations to food manufacturing labs.

The 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced is an automation technology that allows food safety professionals to quickly and accurately image, count, and document microbiological colonies on 3M Petrifilm Plates indicator tests. The 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced saves food safety technicians time by rapidly automating the colony-counting step of 3M Petrifilm Plates.

The Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced is a small, peripheral device that contains a five-megapixel camera, barcode reader, and fixed artificial intelligence that expedites result interpretation. When 3M Petrifilm Plates are placed in the Plate Reader Advanced, an imaging display and accompanying information will be delivered to a USB-connected computer in six seconds or less. The device can enumerate ten 3M Petrifilm Plates and the 3M™ Petrifilm™ Staph Express Disk, and also includes software that allows users to enter additional sample information. When observed on the 3M™ Petrifilm™ Aerobic Count Plate with high counts, 3M reports that its plate reader can reduce the time needed to count microbiological colonies by up to 94 percent. Food safety technicians that use the 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader have also noted that the device’s time-saving quality has been valuable during a time when many laboratories are facing staffing shortages. 

3M: www.3M.com