Merck now offers Halal-Certified Dehydrated Culture Media – a new range of compliant high quality media for hygiene monitoring and microbiological QC testing.
Culture media for hygiene testing or aseptic process simulations could be carrying non-halal ingredients into halal-certified production areas. Peptone media, for example, are primarily made of animal and non-animal origin materials but are nevertheless usually non-halal. This is because the peptone is treated in an early processing step with enzymes of porcine origin. If such media are not specially handled in halal-certified areas, this may compromise the status of the whole production facility and thus of all the end products manufactured in it.
Meeting the needs of halal-certified manufacturers
We have developed a range of fully halal-certified culture media that come with clear information about the origin and processing of each biological component. Manufacturers can use these media for sterility testing in aseptic filling lines or prepare standard agar plates, contact plates, dip slides, and other formats used for hygiene monitoring and microbiological quality control (QC) testing in halal-certified production areas while meeting the needs of halal-certified manufacturers.
These media are:
- Free of non-halal contamination
- Certified annually according to JAKIM MS and MUI HAS halal standards
- Compliant with ISO, EP, USP, JP, and FDA-BAM standards (if designated “prime”)
Our high-quality dehydrated culture media
As a leading worldwide supplier of products and solutions for microbiological testing and monitoring in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food and beverage industries, we offer our culture media as powdered media (NutriSelect® media) or superior granulated media (GranuCult® media).
Our growing range of halal-certified products currently includes:
- Media for air and surface monitoring
- Media for sterility testing in pharmaceutical production facilities
- Media for sterility testing in beverage production facilities
- Raw materials to produce dehydrated culture media or for fermentation purposes
The culture media we offer are available in three QC levels, indicated by the brand extensions basic, plus, and prime. These reveal the degree to which they are compliant with international regulations. The prime level, for example, covers the full compliance spectrum of food, beverage, and pharmaceutical standards, including QC release under ISO 17025 accreditation for culture media described in food and beverage standards.
List of available halal-certified culture media and products:
| Article number | Product | Applications | Regulatory compliance acc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 104316 500 g + 5 kg | Buffered Peptone Water halal acc. ISO 6579, ISO 19250, ISO 21528, ISO 22964, ISO 6887, FDA-BAM and EP | General sample diluent, surface swabs Food & Beverage | ISO, FDA-BAM, EP |
| 104317 500 g | Tryptic Soy Agar halal acc. EP, USP, JP, ISO and FDA-BAM | Total aerobic counts Surface & Air monitoring Pharma & Cosmetics | EP, USP, JP, ISO, FDA-BAM |
| 104323 500 g | Tryptic Soy Agar halal with Lecithin and Polysorbate 80 acc. EP, USP, JP, EN 17141 and ISO 21149 | Total aerobic counts Surface & Air monitoring Pharma & Cosmetics | EP, USP, JP, ISO |
| 104324 500 g | Plate Count Agar halal acc. ISO 4833, ISO 17410 and FDA-BAM | Total aerobic counts Surface & Air monitoring Food & Beverage | ISO, FDA-BAM |
| 104326 500 g | Tryptic Soy Broth halal acc. EP/USP/JP, ISO and FDA-BAM | General sample diluent, Surface swabbing all industries | EP, USP, JP, ISO, FDA-BAM |
| 104327 500 g | YGC/OGY Agar (base) halal (Yeast extract Glucose Agar base) without antibiotics, acc. ISO 6611 I IDF 94 | Yeast & Mold counts Surface & Air monitoring All industries | EP, USP, JP, ISO, FDA-BAM |