Chromocult^® Coliform Agar

ReadyPlate^™ agar plates are stackable specially designed plates that helps increase the safety during handling, transport and incubation. ReadyPlate^™ agar plates are of standard 90mm diameter. Chromocult^® Coliform Agar (CCA) is a selective and differential chromogenic culture medium. It is a standard medium in water testing for simultaneous detection and enumeration of coliform and E.coli. It is also the base medium recommended for testing drinking water as per ISO 9309-1:2014

Chromocult^® Coliform Agar is used for the enumeration of Escherichia coli and coliform bacteria in food and drinking water, disinfected pool water and finished water from treatment plants

The interaction of selected peptones, pyruvate, sorbitol and phosphate buffer promotes rapid colony growth, even for sub-lethally injured coliform bacteria. The growth of Gram-positive bacteria as well as certain Gram-negative bacteria is inhibited by the presence of Tergitol^™ 7 which has no negative effect on the growth of coliform bacteria. Further, the combination of two chromogenic substrates permits the simultaneous detection of coliform bacteria and E. coli.
Coliform bacteria detection: The substrate Salmon-GAL is used for the detection of β-D-galactosidase activity, which is characteristic for coliform bacteria. This interaction results in a pink to red color of the coliform colonies.
E. coli detection: The substrate X-glucuronide is used for the detection of β-D-glucuronidase activity. E. coli cleaves both Salmon-GAL and X-glucuronide, so that positive colonies take on a dark-blue to violet color. These are easily distinguished from other coliform colonies, which have a pink to red color. Some E. coli (3-4%) are β-D-glucuronidase-negative and appear as pink to red colonies.
Accompanying flora appears as colorless colonies, except for some organisms, which possess β-D glucuronidase activity. These colonies appear light blue to turquoise in color.

CHROMOCULT is a registered trademark of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

READYPLATE is a trademark of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

TERGITOL is a trademark of The Dow Chemical Company ("Dow") or an affiliated company of Dow