Heterotrophic plate count, quantitative [HPC-S]
Published: July 8th, 2009
Revised: January 29th, 2019
This test measures total culturable bacteria contained in a sample of bulk material by culturing a measured amount of the sample on Tryptic Soy Agar and incubating at 35 °C for 48 hr. At the end of the incubation period, bacterial colonies are counted and reported as Colony Forming Units per milligram of material (CFU/mg). This test can only be conducted on bulk samples, and cannot be used with swab samples.