Comparison of TEMPO BC with Spiral Plating Methods for the Enumeration of in Cosmetic Products Either Naturally Preserved or Preserved with Phenoxyethanol.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) (BAM) uses rapid agar (BACARA) and Mannitol-yolk-polymyxin (MYP) agar for the enumeration of the members of group. The automated TEMPO Most Probable Number system was compared with the FDA BAM method for the detection of group members in cosmetic products. We inoculated a range of cosmetic products with pure spore suspensions (density = 0.5 McFarland) at high (6 log CFU/mL), medium (5 log CFU/mL), and low (4 log CFU/mL) levels. Test portions were aged for 72 h. Five replicates per sample were analyzed; uninoculated test portions served as controls. We also evaluated whether TEMPO BC erroneously detected non- or other adulterant organisms. No significant differences ( > 0.05) were found among the TEMPO BC and the BAM spiral plating methods. Correlations between TEMPO BC - BACARA and TEMPO BC - MYP were 0.895 and 0.893 for powder type products, 0.834 and 0.846 for cream and oil-based products, and 0.929 and 0.923 for liquid products, respectively. Non- strains were not detected by TEMPO BC. The TEMPO BC method can be used for the detection of in cosmetic products without preservatives, or those preserved with either phenoxyethanol or other organic substances.