Spiral Biotech to Present Poster on Color QCount Study at IAFP

NORWOOD, MASSACHUSETTS, USA, August 2, 2006 – Spiral Biotech, Inc., an Advanced Instruments company, will be presenting the findings of its extensive study on the Color QCount® colony counter at the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Annual Meeting.

In the study, the automated Color QCount was successfully validated against the manual method of counting colonies on agar plates. The instrument allows users to quickly and easily differentiate between colony types and automatically count colonies, improving laboratory efficiency and saving valuable time for technicians. The instrument can process 400 plates per hour, with total analysis time of one second – even when counting overlapping colony clusters.

The Color QCount unit incorporates a high-resolution digital CCD camera and advanced software to differentiate colors, count and identify various types of bacteria. It is used to enumerate microbial load in any type of food or milk sample, by assigning a color to each bacteria and providing both a total count and a specific, individual count.

The study, which involved a total of 581 plates using 26 chromogenic agar types from more than five different vendors, is one of the most extensive conducted by an independent vendor.

At the IAFP, Eileen Garry, Director of Regulatory Affairs and Scientific Liaison for Advanced Instruments, will be giving a poster presentation of the study result on Tuesday, August 15th in the morning poster session #P3-14.

For more information or to view the Color QCount, visit Spiral Biotech in booth #310 at the IAFP Annual Meeting, August 13-16 in Calgary, Canada.

About Advanced Instruments and Spiral Biotech
Founded in 1955, Advanced Instruments, Inc. is the world’s largest supplier of freezing-point osmometers used in clinical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology laboratories. The company is also a leading supplier of analytical instruments and test kits for food, dairy, and industrial microbiology markets.

Spiral Biotech, a wholly owned subsidiary of Advanced Instruments, has been a leader in the automated microbiology field for more than 25 years. Spiral Biotech designs and distributes automated microbiology equipment for the food, environmental, and clinical industries. Contact Spiral Biotech at info@aicompanies.com, or at 1-800-225-4034 or +1-781-320-9000.

For more information about the Spiral Biotech’s Color QCount Colony counter go to www.aicompanies.com/SBI_products/cQcount/cqcount.htm.