On site water testing

Morning everyone

I have been tasked with understanding how we can implement an internal microbiological testing for water

Presently we do approximately 15 test monthly and are looking to increase the number

We use an external laboratory at the moment but it is time consuming

I need your guide on how to go about implementing this test in house

Thank you 

Here's an in-house idea - WaterWorks™ EZ Coliform Cult Mug Kit w/ UV Light | Industrial Test Systems (sensafe.com)

At $10/test it's probably less than what you are paying to send out.  But, you will likely need an incubator.  

Thank you for your reply OrRedFOOD.

We have two incubators in house already. we do at least 200 product testing daily

But just not water. so we were looking to implement that as well. 

I found the Peel plate online, what do you think about that? we are required to test for coliform, E.coli and Heterotrophic bacteria as well 

When I was testing for coliforms/E coli in water in-house, we used the 3M Petrifilm for coliforms. The nice thing about their coliform plate was that it would show you general coliform and E Coli on the same plate, E coli would grow gas bubbles, while non-E Coli type coliforms were just a red colony.  They have great customer service, and should be able to steer you in the right direction for the heterotrophic bacteria.  

The Peel plate by Charm looks good for coliforms but you have to buy separate plates to find out if it's E coli ( if you need that), I see they have the Heterotrophic bacteria plate as well. Charm also has a good reputation in the food industry.  Looks like you are on the right track!

Thank you once again. OrRedFood

Might as well stick with the 3M Petrifilm since we use them presently. and just get the Heterotrophic from charms.

Do u know if we need any process in place before we can implement this apart from an SOP. 

Though our lab isnt a certified microbiology lab but i am a microbiologist and we do various swabbing 

You could ask your 3M sales rep to come in and do an in-house training, specific to water/coliform plates?  They are good at that and give  out employee training certificates.  

what water are you testing?  (municipal, treated, etc).   

While plating 1 or 5 ml is better than nothing, its a very small amount.   the typical  maximum levels for  coliform is  0 in 100mls 

OrRedFood

Thats a good idea, I will get in-touch with 3M

Kingsturdruler thank you. yes that is the standard we follow for our external testing. (We are testing municipal water)

Hi mmaiya,

I can recommend IDEXX for water analysis:

https://ca.idexx.com/en-ca/water/

The tests are easy to use and you need not aditional equipment. Just fill in the water and incubate.

what water are you testing?  (municipal, treated, etc).   

 

While plating 1 or 5 ml is better than nothing, its a very small amount.   the typical  maximum levels for  coliform is  0 in 100mls 

From an analytical/statistical  POV, a numerical standard of "0" is illogical. Most such standards were afaik originally derived from MPN tables.

From an analytical/statistical  POV, a numerical standard of "0" is illogical. Most such standards were afaik originally derived from MPN tables.

agreed

I'm curious to know why so many water tests month/month

You say you're testing the municipal water, not your process water...…..have their been issues in your facility?  Seems excessive for municipal water testing

We used this fancy filtration pump with batteries...forgot what it was called. Then put the filter on VRBA agar