‘Crunch Berries’ Analogy Helps Underscore Importance of Bioburden Monitoring

As a very young microbiologist, my favorite breakfast cereal was Cap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries. The cereal consists of yellow, square-shaped cereal pieces and spherical, multicolored Crunch Berry pieces. I have a vivid recollection of this highly sweetened, artificially flavored masterpiec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBiomedical instrumentation & technology Vol. 51; no. 6; p. 526
Main Author Ferry, Michael
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, AAMI 01.11.2017
Subjects
Berries
Breakfast foods
Cereals
Environmental monitoring
Fruits
Medical devices
Medical equipment
Medical personnel
Microbiology
Training
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Summary:As a very young microbiologist, my favorite breakfast cereal was Cap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries. The cereal consists of yellow, square-shaped cereal pieces and spherical, multicolored Crunch Berry pieces. I have a vivid recollection of this highly sweetened, artificially flavored masterpiece. In recent years, I have been able to use this breakfast cereal as a simple yet colorful training tool to help nontechnical personnel understand key principles of microbiology related to manufacturing of medical devices and monitoring of critical environments. Understanding and responding to bioburden levels on a product or within an environment is a complex task, even for experienced scientists. This topic is a focus of extensive discussion and frequent training facilitated by AAMI and other subject matter experts.
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ISSN:0899-8205
1943-5967
DOI:10.2345/0899-8205-51.6.526