Handbook of Hygiene Control in the Food Industry

Table 37.1

Methods including some commercial air sampling devices used in

collection of air for microbiological sampling

Sampling principle Sampler

Collection surface

Comments

D

ae50

(

m) References

Cascade sieve

Andersen 6-stage Agar in Petri dishes

Reliable results, information on size distribution,

0.57

Andersen (1958);

impactor

impractical in industrial use

Nevalainen

et al

. (1992)

Andersen 2-stage Agar in Petri dishes

Separates respirable

and non-respirable particles 0.95; 8.0 Andersen (1958

);

Nevalainen

et al

. (1992)

Sieve impactor

Andersen 1-stage Agar in Petri

dish

Nevalainen

et al

. (1992)

MicroBio MB2

Contact plate

Parret & Crilly (2000)

Surface Air System, Contact plate

Practical in industrial use

1.45

Griffiths & DeCosemo (1994);

SAS

Nevalainen

et al

. (1992)

MAS-100

Agar in Petri dish

Practical in industrial use

1.62±1.72 Meier & Zingre (2000);

Li & Lin (1999)

Slit impactor

Casella MK II

Agar media

0.67

Bourdillon

et al

. (1941);

Nevalainen

et al.

(1992)

Burkard Personal

2.52

Nevalainen

et al

. (1992)

Sampler

Centrifugal

Cyclones

Wet or dry surface

> 3

Henningson & Ahlberg (1994)

airstream

Reuter centrifugal Special agar strips

Less stress

to microbes than in impactors,

Kang & Frank (1989d);

sampler; RCS

selectivity for larger particles, practical in industrial use

Clark

et al

. (1981);

Macher & First (1983)

Impinger

All glass impinger, Collection fluid

Efficient for collection of bacteria and yeast;

Nevalainen

et al

. (1992);

AGI-30

impractical in industrial use, glass

0.31

Kang & Frank (1989a,c);Griffiths & DeCosemo (1994)

Multistage liquid

Collection fluid

Stainless

steel

Griffiths & DeCosemo (1994)

impingerBioSampler

Collection fluid

More gentle

and efficient (for spores) than AGI-30,

Willeke

et al

. (1992);

impractical in industrial use

Lin

et al

. (2000)

Filtration

Sartorius MD8

Gelatine filter

Efficient for spores, decreased desiccation rate of microbes,

Kang & Frank (1989a,c);

practical in isolators and for big sampling volumes

Parks

et al

. (1996)

Gravitation

Settle plates

Agar in Petri dishes

Simple to use, not quantitative, unreliable

Griffiths & DeCosemo (1994)

Ionization

Electrostatic

Filter, collection

fluids, Mechanically complex;

Griffiths & DeCosemo (1994);

precipitation

agar media

collection of microorganisms on charged surfaces

Mainelis

et al.

(1999)

Temperature

Thermal precipitation

Griffiths & DeCosemo (1994)

gradientSpecific bindings Biosensors

Specific, future development; at the moment no industrial

use