Coliplate™ - Quality Control Testing

The reliability and dependability of Coliplate™ bacterial determinations is a primary concern of Bluewater Biosciences Incorporated. To ensure that an exceptional level of reliability is achieved and maintained, a stringent product testing program is carried out on a continual basis. The following is a summary of our routine product testing protocols.

Batch Monitoring

Coliplates™ are produced in batches of approximately 120. Two Coliplates™ are randomly selected from each batch for quality control testing. Each plate is tested as follows:

50% of the plate (48 wells) is exposed to sterile control test water to ensure that no false positive results occur due to bacterial contamination of the media or plastic plates; and

50% of the plate (48 wells) is exposed to test water spiked with coliform bacteria, including E. coli, to confirm that the bacterial growth media is functional in growing bacterial colonies, and that the chromogens are active with a positive response for coliforms (blue colour change) and E. coli (blue fluorescence).

These performance indicators are measured after 24 hours of incubation at 37°C in a calibrated laboratory incubator.

Replication Testing

Every ten batches, replicate plates are tested with spiked sample water to measure the degree of variability for total coliforms and E. coli in the test results. Bacterial testing of water involves a relatively high natural variability of test results, including replicate sampling. This is true for all testing methods. The growing database for Coliplate™ test results consistently indicates a higher degree of replicability (narrower range of variability) of bacteria measurements than found with many other testing methods.

Most larger-scale bacteria monitoring and research studies using Coliplates™, or other methods, include control and replicate sampling to evaluate testing sensitivity and natural variability for the conditions being encountered. Bluewater Biosciences maintains an ongoing collaboration with university researchers, Environment Canada, environmental consulting companies, and other major users of Coliplates™ with regard to replication and variability testing and analysis.