Cutting Work Time by Two-Thirds: How Medisco Achieved Uniform Inspection Results

Medisco is an analytical laboratory established in 1981. After starting as a clinical laboratory for medical institutions, Medisco has since expanded its business to support a wide variety of contract testing services, including intestinal bacteria testing (stool testing), food microbiology testing, and hygiene testing. They’ve continued to provide high-quality daily data in response to inspection requests from a diverse range of customers. This includes hospitals, clinics, food manufacturing plants, meal service centers, and supermarkets.

Food inspection takes about 60% to 70% of our work time. Due to this significant portion, BC-1000 Series has been extremely helpful to us in the field.

The introduction of the system was prompted by Ms. Fujimoto’s arrival as a new inspector around 2021. Until then, I had been conducting all visual bacterial inspections myself. However, with the addition of new personnel, two problems arose:

Increased workload due to unfamiliar tasks

Up to about 300 colonies can develop in the Petri dish where they are cultivated. Counting them visually one by one proved to be a significant burden for those unaccustomed to it and consumed a considerable amount of time.

Counts vary from person to person

There will inevitably be some variation among individuals in determining which colonies in the medium are counted and which are not. We needed to eliminate this difference as much as possible in order to perform contracted inspections.

Therefore, we decided to look into automated colony counters in order to reduce the workload and achieve uniform inspection results. However, due to the complexity of the operation and the accuracy required, we struggled to find an ideal automatic colony counter.

We then learned through KEYENCE’s email newsletter that they were releasing BC-1000 Series. We reached out to our local representative to come in and demo system and knew instantly we wanted to purchase the system.

Highly impressed by the product demo

We would like to express our appreciation for the salesperson’s effort in bringing the physical system to demo at our company. Witnessing BC-1000 Series accurately count the specimens used in our testing and observing its ability to count the number of bacteria in just one second left a significant impression on us.

Easy to use

Another key factor in our decision was how easy it was to use BC-1000 Series. The operation of counting by simply placing a Petri dish on the machine and pressing the measurement button highlighted the simplicity and ease of use of the system.

High counting accuracy

The capability to accurately count even the smallest colonies was also a crucial factor in our prompt decision. Our direct experience with KEYENCE’s Digital Microscope in our lab has demonstrated their high level of imaging technology. This experience gave us the confidence in us to proceed with BC-1000 Series.

We had KEYENCE’s local representative adjust the settings to suit the human eye at the beginning, so there were no difficulties during the installation process. We are able to set a Petri dish and carry out counting simply by pressing a button.

We also appreciate the fact that when counting is finished, the state of the Petri dish can be recorded as an image. For instance, it’s convenient to quickly reconfirm results when generating a report, or when reviewing the previous status of expiration dates inspections.

One of our favorite features is the Auto Setting Function. It enables us to choose the preview that yields the most accurate count results by offering various options that automatically adjust sensitivity and grain removal settings.

Yes, the time required for counting has been reduced. Although the time to operate BC-1000 Series application, (such as creating inspection tables) has increased, the counting itself takes only about 1 second. This means the total work time has been reduced to about 2/3 of the original time. The elimination of the need for visual inspection has also greatly reduced fatigue during inspections.

This naturally also ensures consistent inspection results. It’s reassuring to see that the previously subjective line between counting and not counting colonies, which varied among inspectors, is now standardized. We no longer have to navigate the challenging process of aligning these boundaries among inspectors.

The selection of the dilution factor for retests has been made easier. Normally, our regulations only count less than 300 bacteria per Petri dish. If the bacteria count is higher than that, we would dilute it again at an appropriate factor determined by seeing how the bacteria would grow. It was necessary to recount that medium again.
With BC-1000 Series, even large numbers of bacteria can be counted accurately. This allowed us to determine the appropriate dilution factor without relying on rules of thumb. Although not as transparent, one of the benefits of introducing BC-1000 Series is that it has reduced the time and effort required for such detailed work.

These past few years we have seen demands for higher inspection accuracy in the food inspection industry. We would like to be able to respond to such requests from our customers as quickly as possible. However, as of now, there is no established accuracy control system. Therefore, we would be very happy if KEYENCE would consider establishing an accuracy control system for food inspection. We hope that BC-1000 Series will become something that externally guarantees high inspection accuracy.