Buffered Peptone Water

Description

Buffered Peptone Water is used for preenriching injured Salmonella species from food specimens to increase recovery.

Edel and Kampelmacher1 noted that food preservation techniques involving heat, desiccation, preservatives, high osmotic pressure or pH changes cause sublethal injury to salmonellae. Preenrichment in a nonselective medium allows for repair of cell damage and facilitates the recovery of salmonellae. Lactose Broth is frequently used for this purpose but it may be detrimental to recovering salmonellae. Buffered Peptone Water maintains a high pH over the preenrichment period and results in repair of injured cells that may be sensitive to low pH. This is particularly important for vegetable specimens which have a low buffering capacity. Buffered Peptone Water can be used for testing dry poultry feed. Test methods have been published for a variety of food samples.

These preenrichment media contain peptone as a source of carbon, nitrogen, vitamins and minerals. Sodium chloride maintains the osmotic balance. Phosphates buffer the media.