According to the Microbiology Market Report, published by Strategic Consulting Inc., microbial tests conducted in the industrial market in 2003 exceeded over 1.1 billion tests generating in excess of $3.2 billion U.S. Dollars.

It is estimated that worldwide microbiology testing will continue to grow, with the number of tests projected to reach 1 .5 billion tests with a market value of over $ 4.9 billion by the year 2008.

According to this report, the main users of microbial tests are the food processing, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care products, . environmental and industrial process industries.

Of the 6 identified industry sectors, the food industry is the largest market for microbiological testing, representing 49% of the total volume of tests performed.

This is followed by the pharmaceutical industry which shows 2 06.9 million tests. The personal care product industry which includes cosmetics conducted1 94.3 million microbial tests followed by the environmental market with 44.8 million tests and then the industrial processing market with 30 million tests annually.

What is interesting to note about these figures is the size of the environmental sector, as compared to the food, pharmaceutical and even personal care sectors.

When we think of microbial testing, we generally think about our drinking water, our beaches and streams and perhaps even waste water treatment plants. So when you consider the fact that waste water treatment plants, lakes rivers and streams as well as all of the drinking water is monitored all over the world and the relative small size of the environmental market overall, it helps to provide some prospective as to just how large the microbial testing market is.