Comparison of rodac plates and petrifilm™ to assess the microbial contamination of food-contract surfaces/ importance of additieves

Assessing the microbial contamination level of surfaces is critical in environments where high hygiene
levels are required. This is typically the case in food and catering industries or in hospitals and medical
appliances. On a routine base, RODAC plates and other techniques based on microbial transfer are
generally used to quantify the microbial load of a surface. There are however still polemics on the
limitations and performances of these techniques arising from the fact that the initial contamination
level of a surface is never known and due to the difficulty of reproducing field conditions in laboratory
environments. The present study brings further information in that direction.