Testing and Tattoos: What May Be Lurking in That Ink

Anything that is consumed or applied to our bodies can contain contaminants. In most cases, the human body does a miraculous job at resisting and fighting the pathogens. But sometimes, the contaminants can lead to health complications, disease, even death. Tattoo ink has recently come before the firing line as a contaminant carrier worthy of serious attention. But what exactly does that mean for ink enthusiasts, and can testing be performed to potentially correct the concerns?

Killer Cosmetics: When Rapid Microbiological Testing Can’t Be Skipped

There’s a famous quote that states if women were happier as a whole with their appearance, the cosmetic industry would be in trouble. And while there’s substance to that, the truth is that if all cosmetic manufacturers utilized microbiological quality control guidelines, there would also be less illness and premature death in the world.

Quality Assurance: Creating Safe Manufacturing Environments

Technological advancements in microbiology environmental monitoring procedures have made them a popular choice in food and beverage, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The traditional methods had limited detection abilities compared to the new technologies.

The Role of Rapid Microbiological Testing in the Cosmetics Industry

Rapid microbiological testing plays an important role in the cosmetics, toiletries, and personal care industries. Microorganisms can cause spoilage or unwanted chemical changes, and can potentially harm consumers using the product. Cosmetics testing assures that cosmetic, personal care, health and beauty products are free of harmful microorganisms and safe for consumer use. These rapid microbiology methods provide a simple and time-saving way to demonstrate product quality that take less time compared to traditional culture-based methods.

Quality Assurance: Microbial Testing of Cosmetics

The number of people using cosmetics continues to grow, and the quantities consumed keep increasing every year. As the production increases, the industry is faced with great concern regarding the microbial contamination of personal care and cosmetic products. The implications of microorganism contamination include massive product waste and financial losses for the manufacturer, not to mention consumer injury or infection. While there are very few cases of the latter happening, the occurrence of such episodes can drastically impact the reputation of a brand.

Preservative Efficacy Testing and Suitability Testing for Cosmetic and Toiletry Industries

The cosmetic and toiletry industries employ unique microbiology quality assurance systems that are specifically designed to detect the presence of microbes in cosmetic and personal care products, and deliver accurate and timely results. These microbiology systems perform a variety of typical assays including checking for unpleasant organisms, microbial content like molds and yeast, preservative efficacy testing, and suitability testing.

BioLumix Microbial Limit Vial (MC)

Introduction:

The Microbial Limit vial is used to test primarily Personal Care, Cosmetic and over the counter Pharmaceutical (OTC) products for microbial content (contamination). Each of these types of products may have preservatives in their composition and the Microbial Limit vial helps to neutralize the inhibition of microbial growth that many preservatives provide. Neutralization of the preservative allows for a proper evaluation of whetheror not the product has contaminants. Often the contaminating bacteria in the product while in the presence of the preservative remain “injured” and unable to replicate. Thelack of replication might be interpreted as the lack of contamination.

How It Works

The Microbial Limit vial’s sensor detects production of CO2 by microorganisms, based upon the principle that CO2 is a universal metabolite produced by all microorganisms. The disposable vial contains a transparent solid sensor located at the bottom which changes its optical properties whenever CO2 diffuses into it. Only gases can penetrate the sensor; blocking liquids, microorganisms, and particulate matter. Consequently, the optical readings are not masked by the sample. CO2 generated by bacterial metabolism in the liquid medium diffuses into the sensor and interacts with an indicator reagent to provide an indication of the presence of the carbon dioxide.

Applications:

The Microbial Limit vial is used to test primarily Personal Care, Cosmetic and over the counter Pharmaceutical (OTC) products for microbial content (contamination). Each of these types of products may have preservatives in their composition and the Microbial Limit vial helps to neutralize the inhibition of microbial growth that many preservatives provide. Neutralization of the preservative allows for a proper evaluation of whether or not the product has contaminants. Often the contaminating bacteria in the product while in the presence of the preservative remain “injured” and unable to replicate. The lack of replication might be interpreted as the lack of contamination.

The first step of the assay is to perform a 1:10 dilution of the product in neutralizing broth such as D/E (Dey/Engley) broth, Letheen Broth, or TAT (Tryptone-Azolectin-Tween) Broth. There after 1.0-0.1 ml of the sample is added to the Microbial Limit vial. The Microbial Limit vial contains the neutralizers that inhibit many common preservatives and this neutralization event helps the customer to correctly measure the presence of contaminating organisms.

Examples of Growth Curves Using the Microbial Limit Vial:

In the curves shown below in the Figure, there is an example of both a positive curve and a negative curve. The bacterium used was Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The BioLumix Microbial Limit vial was specifically designed to be used in complying with USP. Due to the fact the Microbial Limit vial has both Lecithin and Tween in its media composition helps allow for neutralization of the preservative in the sample to be maintained during the assay for viable organisms. Thus, this vial is useful to the customer that has already determined the amount of neutralizing buffer and its content of neutralizer to be used when the product sample is first prepared in diluent. Together the use of the correct neutralizer and the use of the BioLumix Microbial Limit vial helps ensure an accurate assay for the replicating organisms.

Table 1 summarizes the types of Products that customers test in the BioLumix Microbial Limit vial to measure the presence of organisms.

Summary:

The versatility of the BioLumix Microbial Limit vial includes the ability to support growth of most aerobic bacteria, many yeast and some mold organisms. In most cases YMC vial is used for the detection of yeast and molds. The BioLumix Microbial Limit vial can be used for determination of microbial content (contamination), for use in suitability studies that test whether a product can support growth of microorganisms, and in Preservative Efficacy Studies (PET analysis) that is used for cosmetic products. The BioLumix Microbial Limit vial can also be used by customers whose products include Dietary Supplements and Nutraceutical products for which preservatives (natural or chemical) are also added. Supplement products with natural preservatives also need to be neutralized and tested for their ability to support microbial growth.