Inoculation of bulk starter tanks with cell concentrates

Facilities available for the aseptic inoculation of concentrates into bulk starter tanks are generally poor, in my view. In some factories, staff remove the lid or cover of an inoculation port and pour in the cell concentrate. When doing this, the operators often wear sterile gloves and attempt to use alcohol or hypochlorite to sterilise the culture container before inoculation. When this is done in a specially designed room, downwind of whey aerosols and under positive pressure using filtered air, the probability of phage infection occurring is minimised. Some factories that use the Lewis method 'aseptically transfer' thawed culture from a 'fish can' to a sterile hypodermic syringe and inoculate the bulk starter vessel through a hypochlorite solution in the usual way. Ideally, starter suppliers should supply concentrates in a form suitable for aseptic inoculation. For example, they could be supplied pre-packed in syringes .

 
How to cite this article

Mullan, W.M.A. (2006). [On-line]. Available from: http://www.dairyscience.info/index.php/cheese-starters/108-starter-concentrates.html?showall=&start=4 . Accessed: 26 May, 2013.