Development of a Filtration-Based Bioluminescence Assay for Detection of Microorganisms in Tea Beverages

The market for tea drinks as healthy beverages has been steadily expanding, and ready-to-drink beverages in polyethylene terephthalate bottles have been popular. To more rapidly and accurately test tea beverages bottled in polyethylene terephthalate for microbial contamination, a newly developed filtration device and a washing method with a commercial bioluminescence assay were combined to detect low numbers of bacterial spores, fungal conidia, and ascospores. Washing buffers were formulated with nonionic detergents from the Tween series. Commercially available tea beverages were used to evaluate the filtration capacity of the filtration device, the effect of washing buffers, and the performance of the assay. The assay was tested with serially diluted suspensions of colonies of two bacterial strains, spores of three Bacillus strains, conidia of five fungal strains, and ascospores of four fungal strains. The filtration device enabled filtration of a large sample volume (100 to 500 ml), and the washing buffer significantly decreased the background bioluminescence intensity of tea samples when compared with the no-washing method. Low numbers (1 to 10 CFU/100 ml) of the tested strains of bacteria were detected within 8 to 18 h of cultivation, and fungi were detected within 24 to 48 h. Furthermore, a whole bottle (500 ml) of mixed tea was filtered through the filtration device and microbes were detected. This method could be used for quality control of bottled beverages without preincubation.