Hi Dennis -
I think you need to re-think what you are considering as sterilization. You might be requiring a big autoclave in your mind, in order for something to be sterilized, when in fact there are many other ways of achieving sterilization.
When we boil something, what does that do?
When we steam heat each day for three days, does that rate in your mind as a kind of sterilization?
You sterilize your food all the time. It's called cooking.
Don't tell me Coors doesn't sterilize their grains. I have worked with Coors on their production methods.
All culture media are sterilized, some is even sterilized in an autoclave.
A different topic -
I am NOT against "plating(enumerating) in a sterile medium". You are twisting what I said when you put that spin on my words.
I have clearly said, over and over, that plate counts cannot be used to determine diversity. Please comprehend the difference between what I have said, and what you think you heard me say. Get this straight.
Plate count approaches cannot be used to determine diversity. It is a flat-out, total mis-use of methodology to represent plate counts methods as being able to give reliable, useful answers about diversity.
As I have pointed out over and over, plate count methods are useful if you already know the precise growing conditions for a bacterial, and sometimes even for a fungal, culture.
Approximately 99.9% or more of the bacterial or fungal species we know exist in soil, compost, or compost tea do not grow on any medium, in any condition that we can produce in the lab.
When you do select to grow a particular species, or set of species in the lab, the medium has to be sterilized in order to grow those particular desired strains of organisms.
All commercial mushroom facilities sterilize the media they use. Just because you do not recognize the sterilization part of the process does not mean that they do not use sterilization procedures.
Commercial beer production centers treat their grains to prevent contamination of their products. While you may have worked in a part of the beer production process, the grain may have been treated before it ever arrived at that facility. Think the entire process through, be a bit less restrictive in your definition of sterilization. All sterilzation does not require an autoclave.
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
SFI Corvallis, OR
SFI Port Jefferson, NY
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
www.soilfoodweb.com
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Received on Fri Nov 07 2003 - 10:44:16 EST