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MIT's Final Report Is Submitted to the AOAC for
Listeria Performance Test Method Certification Source of
Article: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Micro-Imaging-Technology-Inc-979923.html SAN
CLEMENTE, CA--(Marketwire - April 27, 2009) - Micro Imaging Technology, Inc. ( The
MIT 1000 System ("System") performs rapid and low cost microbial
ID's in a process that is significantly different from all other ID methods
and does not rely on chemical or biological agents, conventional processing,
fluorescent tags, gas chromatography or DNA analysis -- the process is
totally GREEN requiring only clean water and a sample of the unknown
bacteria. The System's uniqueness, deriving microbial ID's from a proprietary
database, and then coupled with AOAC RI's extensive evaluation criteria
required several months of collaboration to develop a suitable Validation
Protocol for the evaluation process -- which once commenced took almost one
year to complete. The
Validation Protocol defined four specific requirements: 1)
Document all procedures: including laboratory and sampling instructions,
user's manual, and hardware and software specifications. 2)
Prove the accuracy and repeatability of MIT's test method: The AOAC RI
assigned the task to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Advanced Research
Service (USDA - ARS) and MIT laboratories. Each laboratory used the
Validation Protocol procedures to conduct blind experiments on samples of
unknown bacteria, meaning the user was not aware of the bacteria's ID. The
collective accuracy from both laboratories, after a total of 136 tests,
achieved 95 percent. 3)
Verify the flexibility of the System: A total of 406 ruggedness tests were
performed that provided an understanding of the System's ID's capabilities if
the user's procedures are varied from those recommended by the Protocol and
MIT. 4)
Prepare a Final Report for the AOAC RI: The Final Report is submitted by the
AOAC RI to independent expert reviewers who evaluate for PTM certification. John
Ricardi, MIT's Vice President and COO, stated "An AOAC PTM certification
is a presumptive requirement for sales into the U.S. and most international
food safety markets. Following Listeria certification, MIT's next goal is to
achieve certifications for the ID of E.coli and Salmonella. The Test
Protocols will be similar and, with the addition of E.coli and Salmonella, a
single database will be created to ID the three pathogenic microbes that are
responsible for most of the food bacterial contamination events worldwide.
Additional microbes will be certified as required by the market." "The
food industry is MIT's initial targeted market where over $3 billion is spent
in rapid ID testing annually and rising at 10 percent per year -- which
should accelerate after all the recent food product contamination events. MIT
is more than pleased with the results achieved during the AOAC PTM evaluation
process for Listeria identification and gives a salute to both the AOAC RI
and our own staff," stated Michael Brennan, MIT's Chairman and CEO. MIT
previously contracted with North American Science Associates, Inc.
("NAMSA"), an internationally recognized testing and process
evaluating laboratory, to design and perform a verification test that
compared the speed, accuracy and efficiency of MIT's System with conventional
processes. The
comparative tests were in a double blind experiment, meaning that the NAMSA
laboratory technicians, using the System and a well recognized alternative,
were not aware of the various microbes' ID. NAMSA chose the industry standard
gas chromatography-based MIDI Sherlock System ("MIDI") as the
system to verify the accuracy of MIT's ID capabilities. MIT's System and
procedures scored 98 percent correct in fifty ID tests. The MIDI system
scored 80 percent and failed to ID, with several attempts, one pathogenic
bacterium. NAMSA eventually employed a conventional biological testing method
which matched the bacterium with MIT's ID. The MIDI system took hours per
test and the biological testing method required days. MIT concluded each test
with several minutes for sample preparation and an average of three minutes
for System testing. The NAMSA Report is available from MIT. About
AOAC International and AOAC Research Institute: AOAC
INTERNATIONAL is a globally recognized, independent, not-for-profit
association founded in 1884. To attain its vision of "worldwide
confidence in analytical results," AOAC serves communities of the
analytical sciences by providing the tools and processes necessary to develop
voluntary consensus standards or technical standards through stakeholder consensus
and working groups in which the fit-for-purpose and method performance
criteria are established and fully documented. The AOAC Research Institute is
part of AOAC INTERNATIONAL and maintains an up-to-the minute list of
certified Performance Tested Methods which have been independently tested,
rigorously evaluated and thoroughly reviewed by the AOAC Research Institute
and its expert reviewers. About
Micro Imaging Technology: MIT
is a California-based public company that has developed and patented a rapid
microbial ID system that can revolutionize the pathogenic ID process and
annually save thousands of lives and tens of millions of dollars. The System
ID's bacteria in minutes, not days, and at a significant per test cost
savings when compared to any conventional method. Revenues for all rapid
testing methods exceed $5 billion annually -- with food safety accounting for
over $3 billion -- having expanded at a rate of 9.2 percent annually since
1998. Current growth projections are at 30 percent annually with test demands
driven by major health, safety and homeland security issues. The
System is laser and optically based and uses the proven principles of light
scattering in conjunction with proprietary PC-based software algorithms to ID
microbes and create a proprietary database. MIT, through independent testing,
has proven the ability with high accuracy to ID the most dangerous and
pervasive pathogens; E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus aureus
(a.k.a. Staph) and twenty (20) other species of bacterium. The
MIT 1000 System has numerous ID applications including food quality control,
clinical diagnostics, pharmaceutical quality assurance, semiconductor
processing control and water quality monitoring. MIT has chosen to focus
initial efforts on food quality control as recent events have created an
urgent demand for quicker and cheaper testing -- demands that will promote a
high-value return on any investment in MIT's technology. Please
visit our web site: www.micro-imaging.com This
release contains statements that are forward-looking in nature. Statements
that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to future events or
conditions or that include words such as "expects,"
"anticipates," "intends," "plans,"
"believes," "estimates," and similar expressions are
forward-looking statements. These statements are made based upon information
available to the Company as of the date of this release, and we assume no
obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. These statements
are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ
materially from our current expectations. Factors that could cause or
contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to dependence on
suppliers; short product life cycles and reductions in unit selling prices;
delays in development or shipment of new products; lack of market acceptance
of our new products or services; inability to continue to develop competitive
new products and services on a timely basis; introduction of new products or
services by major competitors; our ability to attract and retain qualified
employees; inability to expand our operations to support increased growth;
and declining economic conditions, including a recession. These and other
factors and risks associated with our business are discussed from time to
time within our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. CONTACT: |
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