Press releases

ST. PAUL, Minn., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- 3M Food Safety was named a 2022 Edison Awards™ gold winner in the Commercial Technology category for its 3M™ Petrifilm™ Plate Reader Advanced. The Edison Awards globally recognize, honor and foster innovations and innovators whose solutions make a positive impact in the world.

"All of us at 3M Food Safety are incredibly grateful to receive this award honoring our innovations in food safety technology that enable labs to produce reliable results with operational efficiency," said Mario De La Torre, global portfolio manager for 3M Food Safety. "The 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced has been a critical tool for alleviating some of the stress felt by laboratories amid ongoing labor shortages with its impressive time-saving features."

3M Food Safety launched the 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced in 2021 as an enhancement of previous technology that allows food safety professionals to enumerate microorganisms quickly and accurately. The award-winning technology is a small peripheral device containing a five-megapixel camera, versatile bar code reader and fixed artificial intelligence that expedites result interpretation.

3M™ Petrifilm™ Plates are inserted into the reader device, which automatically delivers an imaging display and information on a USB-connected computer in six seconds or less. The device can enumerate 10 3M Petrifilm Plates and the 3M™ Petrifilm™ Staph Express Disk and includes software that allows users to enter other relevant information pertaining to the samples. By reducing the time to count, the plate reader assists laboratories in improving productivity by automatically counting, recording and reporting results with up to 94%-time reduced – when observed on the 3M™ Petrifilm™ Aerobic Count Plate with high counts.

"The 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced has helped our lab tremendously. We have a high volume of 3M Petrifilm Rapid Aerobic Count Plates and the 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced allows us to allocate one analyst to record the data. This process previously required two analysts to spend two or more hours enumerating 3M Petrifilm the Rapid Aerobic Count Plates, but now one analyst can complete the task in less than an hour with the 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced," said Jon Hammond, lab supervisor at Midwest Labs. "The flexibility the 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced has been very beneficial to this lab over the past eight months. During these times when staffing is a challenge, having this ability to streamline a process is incredibly valuable."  

"It's amazing to see 3M Food Safety continuing Thomas Edison's legacy of challenging conventional thinking and developing 'game-changing' new products and services," stated Frank Bonafilia, Edison Awards' executive director.

3M Food Safety maintains an impressive history with the Edison Awards. In the last decade alone, 3M Food Safety has achieved six awards – two gold, three silver and one bronze – demonstrating a strong commitment to innovation through customer insights and market trends by helping provide productivity and efficiency to food manufacturing labs.

For more information about the 3M Petrifilm Plate Reader Advanced, visit www.3M.com/PetrifilmProductivity 

About 3M
At 3M (NYSE: MMM), we apply science in collaborative ways to improve lives daily as our employees connect with customers all around the world. Learn more about 3M's creative solutions to global challenges at www.3M.com or on Twitter @3M or @3MNews.