Most laboratory testing and phenotypic typing methods
specify use of a particular medium for growth of any organism
to be tested. This helps insure accurate comparison of an
unknown to databases of known organisms all grown on that
same medium. A change away from animal-based media could
have real implications for microbial testing laboratories, since
changes in media composition could lead to altered physiological
responses by the microorganisms resulting in phenotypic
changes that could result in misidentification of an isolate. Thus,
if vegetable-based media are to supplant animal-based media, it
is important to determine if they still yield reliable identifications
using standard microbiological testing methods as well as
strain identification platforms built on phenotypic databases.