Howard Mold Set-Up Agricultural/Cold Pressed Juice

I work for an agricultural company using fruit that is not fresh market quality to make cold pressed juices. We've been doing this for about 6 months and have isolated mold as a key factor in quality. With some research I discovered the Howard Mold screening process. I would like to see if this can be used to test incoming fruit mold levels and also post-pressing mold levels to make sure that we won't end up with a mold count above 4 logs. Does anyone have any insight into the viability of this as a "leading indicator" and how it might be set up? I can't find an SOP online except for this : hausserscientific.com/products/howard_mold_counter.html That link is helpful and all, but I don't really know what the filaments are supposed to look like or what how to set up a correlation of length or density of filaments to total mold count. Maybe someone knows of some standards that could be applied in this application? 

My microscope will be arriving in a week or so which I magically got for free from a lab that got new equipment. I'm hesitant to order the Howard mold counting chamber (pretty pricey) until I have an SOP based on some basic understanding. Any tips or suggested reading would be greatly appreciated.

The Howard Mold test requires training and practice to develop the skill necessary for accuracy, and even though you have a microscope, it may not be the best one for this application.

I suggest you contact the lady below to receive proper onsite training and validation of your equipment selection. She is associated with UC Davis (California) and is a very good instructor, trusted by many of us in the tomato industry as the "final word" on Howard Mold counts.

http://www.ngp-consulting.com/

Best of luck to you!