Modern microbiological methods for foods: colony count and direct count methods. A review.

Over the last years methods for enumeration of microorganisms in foods are changing rapidly. Techniques based on totally new concepts as well as instruments and miniaturized systems that allow the automation and simplification of existing microbiological procedures have been developed. These rapid methodologies should satisfy the increasing requirements for effective quality assurance of foods. In the present paper we review some of the more interesting methods based on colony count or direct bacterial count.