Testing Antimicrobial/Preservative Effectiveness

Hi, my name is Liliana Pang and I'm the Research Associate at Emeryville Pharmaceutical Services. Today I'm going to talk about testing the effectiveness of antimicrobials and preservatives. Normally, preservatives are known to be used in foods and beverages. What we don't realize is that they are also used in cosmetics, lotions, medications, et cetera and even eye drop. During the manufacturing phase, all these products can potentially get contaminated. However, they will most likely get contaminated during usage, especially since microbes are found on our fingertips and in the air. The United States Pharmacopoeia, the USP have developed the Antimicrobial Preservative Effectiveness Test just for this. With all this in mind, all these products must be tested against a common yet wide range of microbes. All these products are tested against Aspergillus brasiliensis, Canada Albicans, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. All of these strains can cause a very deadly infection, especially in immunocompromised people. Luckily, the European Pharmacovia, the EP and the Japanese Pharmacovia, the JP have developed a similar test. Here at Emeryville Pharmaceutical Services we read results according to the usp. In order for all products to pass the test, the fungal strains count must not increase and the bacterial strains must decrease one to three log. This test does not determine the expiration date. If you'd like to learn more, please read my blog, Understanding Preservatives Antimicrobial Effectiveness in Everyday Products. For more in depth detail, Please refer to USP 51 EP 5.1.3 and JP 19. For a free one hour consultation, please call 510-899-8828.