Microbiology in colour!

Developed to improve the isolation and identification of a variety of micro-organisms, Lab M’s Harlequin™ chromogenic media can help eliminate or reduce the need for subculture and confirmatory biochemical tests. The Harlequin range now includes media for Listeria monocytogenes isolation, the enumeration of coliforms, and E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella species isolation.

Chromogenic media represent one of the most significant advances in microbiological culture in recent years. They provide a rapid, accurate means of isolating and enumerating target micro-organisms based on the detection of specific enzyme activities.

Lab M’s Harlequin Listeria Chromogenic Agar (Agosti & Ottaviani formulation) was the first chromogenic dehydrated Listeria medium as specified by ISO 11290. Designed for food industry applications, it can be used as the primary isolation medium for L. monocytogenes in foodstuffs and related materials. Similarly, Harlequin Salmonella ABC (Freeman Formulation) aids the isolation of Salmonella spp. from both food and clinical samples.

Harlequin mLGA (membrane Lactose Glucuronide Agar) is used to isolate coliforms from water potentially contaminated with sewage. The medium helps reduce the number of filters used per test sample, and aids the recovery and identification of coliforms and E. coli.

When isolating E. coli O157:H7 amongst other non-sorbitol fermenting E. coli, Harlequin SMAC-BCIG (Sorbitol MacConkey Agar with BCIG) helps reduce ‘false-positive’ results, while Harlequin TBGA (Tryptone Bile Glucuronide Agar) was developed for the simple enumeration of E. coli without the need for membranes or pre-incubation.