FIG. 5.

Detection of bacterial growth in sample dilutions representing pooled RBCC samples 14 and 28 days after spiking. The growth of spiked bacteria was analyzed after 14 days (blacks bars) or 28 days (grey bars) of refrigerated storage. After an 18-h incubation step at 37°C, the contaminated sample was mixed with the equivalent of 19 noncontaminated samples and the pool was analyzed with the Scansystem RBC kit. The number of bacteria detected is reported for the three strains that displayed growth; S. epidermidis and B. cereus were not observed.