Ballina County Tipperary in Ireland, and a spin-off from the Technopath Group, Ireland, unveiled what is said to be the biggest breakthrough in microbiology testing in the dairy industry in 100 years.Oculer technology detects Thermoduric Bacteria in dairy products, cutting detection times from the current global standard of 72 hours to 24 hours.
How it works is, an alarm system signals potential risk of the presence of the bacteria triggered in as little as six hours.
Thermoduric Bacteria are naturally occurring bacteria that survive the pasteurization process and are responsible for downstream issues such as spoilage of finished products, reduced shelf life and reduced protein concentrations. Rapid detection of the bacteria will significantly reduce spoilage, help eradicate shelf-life issues and advance the elimination of the bacteria entirely in other milk-related products.
Oculer technology also identifies the source of the Thermoduric Bacteria, i.e. whether they have originated from the milking machine at farm level or from ineffective cleaning of animals’ teats immediately prior to milking, enabling the farmer to isolate the source of the bacteria and take remedial action to avoid reoccurrence.
The Oculer instrument will analyze up to 2,400 samples simultaneously, which is said to be several times more than can be tested in Ireland’s largest laboratory facilities that currently perform Thermoduric testing.
