Charlie's question on Coliforms, response below

[Guest guest]

Hi Charlie,

His response to your link is below. Hope this is what you were looking for:

Thanks,

a

"I can say that Coliforms are a good indicator of soil contamination, but are not necessarily a good indicator of food safety.

In 1892 it was proposed that E. coli be used as an indicator of fecal contamination. Although good in theory, in practice with the microbiological tools of the time, it was difficult to distinguish between E. coli and other similar gram negative bacilli that can ferment lactose. So the term Coliform was coined and used to describe this group of organisms. Use of Coliforms as an indicator of sanitary condition is questionable because they are commonly found in the environment. Coliforms are abundant in soil as well as the intestinal tracts of warm blooded animals.

Coliform is not a taxonomic classification but rather a working definition used to describe a group of Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic rod-shaped bacteria that ferments lactose to produce acid and gas within 48 h at 35°C. In 1914, the U.S. Public Health Service adopted the enumeration of coliforms as a more convenient standard of sanitary significance.

E. coli or fecal coliforms would be a much better indicator of the potential presence of pathogenic contamination in raw milk."