MSL Solution Providers - VeganSure Validation

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VeganSure Validation

It is vital that VeganSure® tests perform as well as your existing non-vegan tests and do not affect your products journey to market. This is why MSL have carried out extensive validation on hundreds of samples, duplicate tested on VeganSure® and traditional culture media. We used real cosmetic products, and a range of product types and preservative systems to be sure there is no reason not to switch to VeganSure®. 

Tryptone Soy Agar is a general-purpose, nonselective media providing enough nutrients to allow for a wide variety of microorganisms to grow. It is used for a wide range of applications, including isolation of pure cultures, enumeration of cells such as bacteria and yeast.

Tryptone Soy Agar contains animal-derived proteins which are sometimes sourced from abattoirs, taking this into account, MSL has developed a vegan alternative VeganSure® Agar or VSA. The first challenge was to show that VSA performs at the same level as the traditional TSA. To do this a productivity ratio for two organisms of typical interest, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus was performed against a recognised brand of TSA. We are happy to say that VeganSure® performed as well as traditional testing for both Microbial Limits and Preservative Efficacy (Challenge) Testing.

Figure 1                           

Table 1                                                               

Figure 2

Table 2

Figures 1 and 2 show the difference in cfu for S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. The acceptable count range is set between 50-150cfu as this is the typical range used for neutraliser validations in ISO 11930, it also covers the count threshold for high-risk products within the EU.

Figure 3

Picture1 

The data in figure 3 clearly shows that for both S. aureus and P. aeruginosa the performance of VSA (VeganSure® Agar) matches the performance of the traditional TSA. With an ideal Productivity Ratio of 1 all 40 samples showed a statistically insignificant difference.