The plate counting agar can't be sterilized by dry heat, and the dry heat sterilization method is not suitable for the sterilization of the plate counting agar, so it can't achieve a good disinfection effect. Instead, it should be sterilized by wet heat, high temperature and high pressure autoclave, and it can be successfully sterilized in12 15 minutes under the condition of1℃.

Plate counting agar is a non-selective solid medium, which is used to count microorganisms in food, cosmetics and drinking water, both in standard method and automatic spiral plate counting method.