ISO 6888-2 Horizontal Method for Enumeration of Coagulation-Positive Staphylococci (Staphylococcus Aureus And Other Species) - Part 2 - Technique Using Rabbit Plasma Fibrinogen Agar Medium

This part of the ISO 6888 standard, developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), specifies a horizontal method for enumerating coagulase-positive staphylococci by counting colonies obtained on a solid medium (rabbit plasma fibrinogen agar medium) after aerobic incubation at 34°C to 38°C.

This document applies to:

• Products intended for human consumption;
• Products for animal feeding;
• Environmental samples in food and feed production and handling;
• Examples from the primary production stage.

This horizontal method was originally developed for examining all samples of the food chain. Due to the wide variety of products in the food chain, it is possible that this horizontal method is not suitable in every detail for all products. However, the required changes are expected to be minimized so that they do not cause a significant deviation from this horizontal method.

Based on the information available at the time of publication of this document, this method does not indicate that fermented products or Staphylococcus spp. (e.g. S. xylosus) (such as cheeses made from raw milk and cheeses made from some raw meat products) are not considered suitable for the study of other products containing technological flora:

• Staphylococci forming atypical colonies on Baird-Parker agar;
• Background flora that can hide wanted colonies.

However, both ISO 6888-1 and this document have been given equivalent status.

Due to the wide variety of food and feed products, this horizontal method may not be suitable in every detail for some products. In this case, different methods specific to these products can be used if absolutely necessary for legitimate technical reasons. However, every attempt should be made to apply this horizontal method as much as possible.

A later review of this section of ISO 6888 will take into account all available information regarding the extent to which this horizontal method was followed and, in the case of certain products, the reasons for deviations from it.

Among the services provided by our organization within the framework of material testing services, there are also ISO 6888-2 standard tests.