Microbiological Studies
Microbiology laboratory at SRI undertakes quality inspection and certification for industries associated with raw and processed food, drugs, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and water. The lab is well equipped, with state of the art facilities and experienced scientists. The lab provides the following services.

Thrust Areas

Product Quality Inspection And Certification

Detection Of Pathogens

Name Of The Pathogens

Enumeration Of Spoilage Microbes
Micro-organisms are ubiquitous in nature. Quality and shelf life of any product depends on presence and nature of micro-organisms contained in it. Under favourable conditions these micro organisms proliferate and result in loss of product quality. Microbiological monitoring is an essential part of quality control. SRI plays an important role in testing and certification.

Test Parameters

Residual Anti-Microbial Substances
Food-producing animals are given antimicrobial drugs for prevention of disease and for their well being. The residues of these antimicrobial drugs remain in and on the body of the animals.

Following anti-microbial residues are being tested at ppb levels using ELISA techniques.

Mycotoxins
Mycotoxins are carcinogenic, highly toxic metabolites of fungi like Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium. They are toxic even in trace quantities.

Bacterial Enterotoxins
Bacteria produces Enterotoxins as a part of their metabolic activities. Some of them are heat labile while others are heat stable in nature. Even severe food processing treatments can not eradicate these toxicants and may result in food intoxication.

SRI undertakes testing of the following Enterotoxins in food and food products.

Sterility Testing
Sterility is a mandatory requirement for all injectables, ophthalmic preparations and surgical devices. Sterility test is conducted in accordance with various pharmacopoeia viz.. IP, USP, BP etc. Following products are being tested.

Bioburden Estimation
Terminally sterilized products are assessed for their microbial loads prior to sterilization. This helps in standardization of sterilization loads. SRI also undertakes method validation studies for bio-burden estimation in surgical devices.

Monitoring of Indoor Air
SRI carries out air-monitoring studies for presence of microbes. Services are provided in the following areas.

Anti Bacterial Efficacy of Nanotechnology based devices/filters
Nanotechnology based devices are the ones which show efficacy even while working on nano scale(one billionth). Various devices are based on this technology such as washing machines, refrigerators, AC etc. Similarly filters are used for water purification and are based on various techniques like UV-disinfection, ozonization, ion exchange and membrane filtration. Filters are checked for anti bacterial efficacy against a number of challenge organisms like E.coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Vibrio, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas and Micrococcus luteus.

Preservative Efficacy
Nanotechnology In pharmaceutical, herbal and cosmetic formulations, various anti-microbial substances are added to arrest microbial activity and extend shelf life of the products. The effectiveness of these substances are evaluated as per USP protocols. Selection of challenge micro-organisms include gram positive and gram negative bacteria, spore formers, yeast and fungi.

Disinfection Efficacy
The Phenolic and non-phenolic type disinfectants are being tested for their germicidal value as per National and International protocols.