The suitable colony counting range (10) is 25-250. The automated spiral plate count method for the examination of foods and cosmetics (5), outlined below, conforms to AOAC official Methods of Analysis, sec. 977.27. For procedural details of the standard plate count, see ref. 2.Guidelines for calculating and reporting plate counts have been changed to conform with the anticipated changes in the 16th edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Dairy Product (2) and the International Dairy Federation (IDF) procedures (6)