Media for preservative resistant yeasts: a collaborative study

An international collaborative study was carried out to determine the most effective medium for selective isolation and enumeration of preservative resistant yeasts. Such a medium should prevent the growth of other yeasts such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae that are tolerant to lower levels of commonly used food preservatives, and sensitive yeasts such as Rhodotomla species. The study compared two non-selective media that are in common use for cultivation of yeasts from foods, Malt Extract agar (MEA) and Tryptone Glucose Yeast extract agar (TGY) with media made selective for preservative resistant yeasts by the addition of 0.5% acetic acid to these two basal media (MEAA and TGYA). A fifth medium, Zygosaccharomyces bailii medium (ZBM) was also included in the study. These media were compared for their efficacy in selective isolation and enumeration of the preservative resistant yeasts Zygosaccharomyces bailii, Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Pichia membranaefaciens. MEA and TGY without acetic acid were used as control, non-selective media, and Rhodotorula glutinis was the preservative sensitive control culture. Seven laboratories in six countries took part in the study. Of the non-selective media, TGY generally gave the highest counts, and TGY amended with 0.5% acetic acid (TGYA) was the best medium for recovery of all three preservative-resistant yeasts. ZBM was found to be selective for Z. bailii, but counts of this yeast on ZBM were significantly lower than on TGYA. R. glutinis did not grow on any of the selective media.