Impedance Measurements in Raw Milk as an Alternative to the Standard Plate Count ¹

Electrical impedance, using the Bactometer 32, was evaluated as an alternative method to the Standard Plate Count (SPC) to determine the initial microbial count of raw milk samples. The raw milk samples were obtained from farm bulk tanks on commercial dairy farms. Analyses were started within 24-36 h after collection. The impedance method was used to evaluate the samples as raw milk, raw milk plus yeast extract, raw milk given preliminary incubation (18 h at 13 C) or raw milk given preliminary incubation plus yeast extract. The yeast extract (1% final concentration) was added after the milk was placed in the module wells. The geometric mean SPC of each of these four groups was 4.51, 4.37, 4.96 and 5.14, and the corresponding mean detection times with Bactometer 32 were 10.13, 8.80, 8.28 and 6.11 h, respectively. The correlation coefficient of detection time to SPC was -0.77, -0.88, -0.78 and -0.79, respectively, for the four sample groups. When specific detection cut-off times (approximately 7 h) were selected and a maximum SPC of 100,000 CFU/ml was selected, 85.2%, 97.2%, 81.0% and 83.6%ofthe samples in the above four groups were correctly classified.