Violet Red Bile Agar with MUG (Dehydrated)

Detect and enumerate coliform organisms in water, food and dairy products with Thermo Scientific™ Oxoid™ Violet Red Bile Agar with MUG (Dehydrated). This lactose-containing selective medium can be used for the determination of the coli-aerogenes content of water, milk and other dairy products, dairy equipment, and food products^1,2. Violet Red Bile Agar with MUG contains 4-methylumbelliferyl-ß-D-glucuronide (MUG) as a substrate which is cleaved by the enzyme ß-glucuronidase produced by Escherichia coli resulting in a fluorescent end-product.

Use Violet Red Bile Agar for examination of food, animal feed, and environmental samples for the presence of indicator groups such as coliforms. Besides safety, indicator groups provide a measure of food quality and spoilage potential. One of the most common groups of bacteria employed as indicator organisms by the food industry are the coliforms, which can be regarded as a subgroup within the Enterobacteriaceae.

• Easy-to-read: organisms rapidly fermenting the lactose (coliforms) form red-purple colonies with red-purple halos; while late lactose fermenters form pale colonies with greenish halos.
• Selective: crystal violet and bile salts suppress the growth of non-target Gram-positive bacteria.

Organisms which rapidly attack lactose produce purple colonies surrounded by purple halos. Non-lactose or late-lactose fermenters produce pale colonies with greenish zones. Other related Gram-negative bacteria may grow but can be suppressed by incubation at >42°C or by anaerobic incubation.

Druce et al.³ found that Violet Red Bile Lactose Agar was as good an indicator of coli-aerogenes bacteria in milk as MacConkey Broth, and that the medium was suitable for determining the coli-aerogenes content of milk.

NaOH addition generally improves fluorescence by increasing the alkalinity of the solution. An increase in fluorescence can also be achieved by increasing the level of MUG added to the base medium.

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