MICROBIAL DETECTION WITH BIOCALORIMETRY
Isothermal microcalorimetry detects the metabolic heat produced by microorganisms with exceptional sensitivity. This enables detection of microbial contamination at only a few CFU within just a few hours. Where optical, molecular, and culture-based tests struggle with product characteristics, limited sensitivity, and complex sample preparation, biocalorimetry excels:
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Continuous monitoring with time to detection in hours
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Detects of only viable microorganisms, minimal risk of false results
- Simplified workflows, direct testing of even thick, opaque, and viscous samples
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Non-destructive testing, samples remain available for further analysis
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Detects microbial contaminants embedded deep in products
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Reliable across both preservative-heavy and clean-label formulations
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Versatile for measurements on raw materials, intermediates, and final products
FASTER MICROBIAL TESTING, FASTER AND MORE CONFIDENT PRODUCT RELEASE
Faster product release helps food and beverage manufacturers reduce inventory costs and improve operational efficiency. Traditional microbiological methods often require several days to generate results, delaying quality decisions and keeping products on hold while increasing inventory costs.
Based on the principles of biocalorimetry and highly sensitive isothermal microcalorimetry, the calScreener and caloTrace systems enable earlier detection of microbial activity in complex food and beverage matrices, helping manufacturers identify spoilage risks, evaluate shelf-life performance, and verify product quality faster.
Through continuous monitoring and automated pass/fail analysis, the technology supports more efficient quality control, spoilage investigations, and shelf-life studies across food and beverage applications.
Streamlined microbial testing workflow
Unpreserved products such as juices, milk, and plant-based beverages can be tested directly by simply transferring the sample to a test vial—no need to prepare, treat, or stain the sample. Products containing preservatives or antimicrobial ingredients can be combined with growth media to neutralize inhibitory effects. Samples are loaded directly into the system and continuously monitored in real time. Automated pass/negative results provide rapid quality decisions, while complete microbial growth curves deliver deeper insights into contamination events, spoilage risks, shelf-life performance, and preservative efficacy.
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No enrichment or filtering
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No lysis or extraction
MICROBIOLOGICAL TESTING FOR BEVERAGE QUALITY AND SHELF LIFE
From juices and plant-based drinks to dairy products, fermented beverages, and probiotics, manufacturers face increasing pressure to ensure product quality, safety, and shelf life while accelerating product release.
Based on biocalorimetry, the caloTrace system enables rapid detection of viable microbial activity directly in complex beverage matrices using up to 10 mL representative sample volumes with minimal sample preparation. The technology supports contamination detection, spoilage investigations, shelf-life studies, fermentation monitoring, and product development across a wide range of beverage products.
By continuously monitoring microbial metabolism in real time, beverage manufacturers can identify spoilage risks earlier, make faster quality decisions, and accelerate product release while maintaining confidence in product quality and shelf-life performance.
MORE EFFICIENT PRESERVATIVE EFFICACY TESTING
Preservative efficacy testing is used to assess the ability of formulations to resist microbial growth throughout the intended shelf life. Traditional plating methods are often slow and labor-intensive. The calScreener enables faster and more sensitive detection by measuring microbial metabolic activity in real time, eliminating the need for dilutions, plating, and waiting for colonies to become visible.
Up to 32 samples can be run in parallel, with samples easily added to growth media vials and loaded directly into the system. This reduces manual handling by up to 90%, costs, and waste while increasing testing throughput. In addition to automated positive or negative results, continuous thermograms provide deeper insights into preservative performance, microbial activity, and product stability throughout shelf-life studies.
DETECTION OF VIABLE MICRORGANISMS
Detecting viable microorganisms in complex products can be challenging. Traditional culture-based methods often require extensive sample preparation and may fail to detect viable but non-culturable organisms, while molecular methods can detect DNA from both living and dead microorganisms, potentially complicating result interpretation.
By measuring metabolic heat, biocalorimetry enables direct detection of viable microorganisms based on biological activity. This provides earlier and more representative insights into microbial presence across complex products and matrices without relying on colony formation, secondary optical indications, or nucleic acid detection.
Ingredient Quality and Contamination Control
Raw materials and ingredients can introduce microbial contamination long before production begins. Traditional methods often require lengthy incubation periods, delaying release decisions, increasing inventory costs, and potentially missing low-level contamination in complex ingredient matrices.
Biocalorimetry enables earlier detection of viable microorganisms directly in complex ingredient samples, helping manufacturers verify ingredient quality, identify contamination risks sooner, and make faster release decisions.
PROBIOTICS AND FERMENTATION
Probiotic and fermented food development depends on understanding how microorganisms grow, interact, and perform under real-world conditions. Traditional methods can be slow, labor-intensive, and often fail to capture the full metabolic activity of living cultures. Biocalorimetry provides continuous, real-time monitoring of microbial metabolism, enabling rapid screening of growth conditions, optimization of fermentation processes, evaluation of strain combinations, and verification of probiotic viability directly in complex food matrices. The calScreener can easily be used with anoxic growth condition, suitable for obligate anaerobic organisms.
Preventing contamination
There are few things in the food production industry more important than maintaining clean, sterile production facilities. The testing process for sterility after cleaning can be lengthy and costly. The problem is compounded if testing methods fail to detect each microbial cell, leading to short-term recontamination. Traditional methods often miss viable but non-culturable cells, meaning that the risk of contamination persists.
The Symcel calScreener and caloTrace detect contamination originating from a single viable microbial cell, ensuring no contaminants are overlooked. They are remarkably sensitive and quickly detect all types of microbes, including slow-growing bacteria, anaerobes, spores, molds, and yeast. You can drastically reduce downtime, knowing that your lines are truly sterile and ready for use.
TEST YOUR FOOD AND BEVERAGE MICROBIOLOGY APPLICATION
Want to evaluate time to detection and ease of use on your own products? Symcel offers feasibility studies tailored to your application. Simply send us your samples and we will design and perform experiments specific to your testing needs, delivering a report with results and conclusions.
The calScreener benchtop system also provides an efficient way to evaluate biocalorimetry in research and development before transferring methods to QC testing on the caloTrace platform.
