Evaluation of TEMPO STA for the Enumeration of Coagulase-positive Staphylococci in Cheese

TEMPO STA is based on traditional most probable number technique and is a test for use with the TEMPO system for an automated enumeration of coagulase-positive staphylococci in 24 h in food products. In this study, TEMPO STA was compared with Baird-Parker (BP) agar which is the most cited medium in reference methods for the enumeration of coagulase-positive staphylococci in cheese. A method comparisons study was conducted both artificially and naturally contaminated cheese samples. Pearson correlation coefficients were determined as 0.875 and 0.897 between the two methods for naturally and artificially contaminated samples, respectively. In general, absolute differences did not exceed one log between results obtained by the two methods. According to intra-laboratory reproducibility standard deviation of two methods, TEMPO STA was more precise than BP agar. The results of this study showed that TEMPO STA is an efficient alternative method for the enumeration of coagulase-positive staphylococci in cheese.