Increasing Productivity in Today’s Food Microbiology Labs

Food safety laboratories are under increasing pressure from higher sample volumes, evolving regulatory expectations, and ongoing workforce constraints—often without additional time, space, or personnel. In food production facilities, these challenges are intensified by the need to maintain testing throughput while supporting manufacturing schedules and regulatory compliance. 

Productivity has become a critical operational consideration alongside accuracy and consistency. Findings from the whitepaper Increased Productivity with Neogen® Petrifilm® Plates examine common constraints associated with traditional agar‑based methods and outline practical approaches to improving efficiency through more streamlined workflows, optimized resource use, and standardized testing methodologies—without compromising analytical integrity.

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The Productivity Challenge Facing Modern Labs

Traditional agar methods require significant hands‑on effort beyond testing, including media preparation, pouring, labeling, storage, and disposal—consuming substantial technician time before incubation even begins. As sample volumes grow, these steps quickly become workflow bottlenecks that limit throughput and strain lab resources. 

Manual colony counting adds further inefficiency and variability, as enumeration is time‑intensive and prone to analyst fatigue. Reducing manual handling and adopting streamlined workflows—such as automated enumeration—can significantly cut non‑value‑added time while maintaining analytical rigor and regulatory alignment. 

Where Dry‑Film Testing Began—and Why It Still Matters

More than 40 years ago, Neogen Petrifilm® Plates pioneered the dry‑film media category with a clear objective: help laboratories work faster, more consistently, and more efficiently. At the time, agar preparation was the standard. Petrifilm Plates changed that by introducing ready‑to‑use plates that eliminated many of the most variable and time‑consuming steps in microbiology.

Today, dry‑film media is a recognized category—but it exists because Petrifilm Plates proved it could. As the creator of the category, Petrifilm Plates continue to set the benchmark for performance, validation, and workflow integration. 

Petrifilm Plates are more than a convenient format. They are engineered systems that combine nutrients, indicator dyes, and a standardized film structure to support consistent colony development and easy interpretation. Backed by decades of global validations and regulatory acceptance, they give labs confidence that productivity gains never come at the expense of result integrity.

Simplifying Workflows with Neogen Petrifilm Plates 

Petrifilm Plates are designed to streamline microbiological testing from start to finish and are ready to use—eliminating media preparation and reducing workflows to three simple steps: inoculate, incubate, enumerate. 

This simplified approach delivers measurable productivity gains. Labs adopting Petrifilm Plates have observed up to a 48% average improvement in productivity compared with agar methods, with actionable test results available in up to half the time. Fewer steps reduce hands‑on labor, minimize analyst‑to‑analyst variability, and simplify training as testing volumes increase. 

Compared to agar methods, Petrifilm Plates also enable more efficient use of laboratory space, requiring up to 85% less incubator and storage capacity compared to agar methods, Petrifilm Plates also enable more efficient, allowing labs to expand testing throughput without facility expansion. In addition, reduced demands for energy, water, and waste disposal help support sustainability goals—aligning operational efficiency with broader organizational priorities. 

Productivity Multiplied Through Automated Enumeration 

The productivity potential of Petrifilm Plates is realized through automated enumeration. Manual colony counting is one of the most time‑intensive and limiting steps in microbiological testing—but also one of the most impactful to optimize. 

The Neogen® Petrifilm® Plate Reader Advanced automates colony counting and data capture, delivering consistent interpretation across users while dramatically reducing manual effort. When Petrifilm Plates are paired with automated enumeration, labs have achieved up to a 94% reduction* in manual colony counting time as compared to manually counting colonies on agar, with plates read in seconds rather than minutes.

This automated, dry‑film workflow supports: 

• Faster turnaround times
• Significant reductions in manual labor and transcription errors
• Standardized results across analysts, shifts, and sites 

By minimizing repetitive counting tasks, this end‑to‑end approach enables skilled lab professionals to focus on higher‑value work—such as data review, troubleshooting, and preventive controls—while maintaining confidence in result consistency and reliability. 

*Observed on the Neogen Petrifilm Aerobic Count Plate with High Counts

Designed for Real‑World Lab Operations 

Efficiency pressures are common across food safety labs.  Petrifilm Plates are designed to integrate seamlessly into existing workflows in food production, contract testing, and quality environments. 

Combined with the Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced, Petrifilm solutions reduce active, hands‑on testing time by an average of 48%—or 3.8 hours per eight‑hour test period—compared to reference methods. Ready‑to‑use media, compact storage, and automation‑ready design help labs increase testing capacity without adding labor, while delivering faster, more predictable workflows and better use of space and resources. 

Download the Whitepaper 

The whitepaper Increased Productivity with Neogen Petrifilm Plates provides a detailed analysis of these challenges, including considerations related to workflow efficiency, resource utilization, and implementation within food production laboratory environments. 

As food safety testing requirements continue to evolve, the whitepaper provides technical context on how Petrifilm Plates support standardized, validated testing workflows while maintaining analytical rigor, reproducibility, and regulatory alignment. 

Download the full whitepaper to see how Petrifilm Plates can help increase productivity in your lab—and discover what’s possible when efficiency is built into every step. 

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