GROWING GOURMET - Anto2ni.it

DESIGNING AND BUILDING A SPAWN LABORATORY 467
Good Clean Room Habits:
Helpful Suggestions for
Minimizing Contamination
in the Laboratory
1) No shoes in the laboratory The lab is
strictly a "shoes-off' environment. Disposable
booties are often used over socks. No outer
clothing that has been exposed to the outside
air should be worn into the laboratory.
2) Wear newly laundered clothes and/or a
laboratory coat . Once your clothes have
come into contact with contaminants, these
contaminants will become airborne within the
laboratory. Two primary sources of contamination
are people's pets and their car seats. Once
the laboratory personnel come in contact with
contamination sources, their usefulness in the
laboratory has been jeopardized.
3) Wash hands frequently with antibacterial
soap and isopropanol. Personnel should
thoroughly wash their hands before entering
the laboratory and, with frequency, every 1/2
hour during the course of inoculations.
Isopropanol ("rubbing") alcohol is used for
wiping countertops, hands, and topically sterilizing
tools. Other disinfectants are available
from the hospital supply industry.
4) Frequently mop floors with a 10%
bleach solution. The lab floors should be
mopped at least once a week, and directly after
each major run. Two buckets are used: one for
bleach and one for rinsing the dirt-laden mop.
Mop heads should be frequently replaced.
5) Do not conduct inoculations when you
are sick with a cold, the flu, or other
contagious illnesses. I know of cases where
cultivators have inadvertently cultivated
Staphylococcus bacteria and re-infected themselves
and others. Face masks should be worn
if you have no option but to work when you are
sick.
6) Do not speak, exhale, or sing while conducting
inoculations. Your breath is laden
with bacteria that thrive in the same media designed
for the mushroom mycelium. If you
have a telephone in your laboratory, be aware
that it often becomes a redistribution point for
contamination.
7) Remove trash and contaminated cultures
daily. I do not have wastebaskets in my
laboratory, forcing me to remove trash constantly
and preventing a site for contamination.
8) If cloning a specimen, never bring
sporulating mushrooms into the laboratory.
Ideally, have a second, small, portable laminar
flow hood specifically used for cloning. I use
this same laminar flow hood as a "Micron
Maid" to help kept airborne particulates at reduced
levels in downstream environments.
New petri dish cultures from clones should be
wrapped with elastic film or tape to prevent the
escape of molds, bacteria, and mites into the
laboratory. If sporulating molds are visible,
isolate in a still-air environment.
9) Isolate cultures by placing petri
dishes on "sticky mats". I came up with this
innovation when fighting mites and trying to
prevent cross-contamination. Sticky mats are
also known as Decontamination Floor Pads.
See Figure 60.
10) Establish a daily and weekly regimen
of activity. Daily and weekly calendar
schedules for managing the laboratory will
help give continuity to the production stream.
Since so many variables affect the outcome
of mushroom cultivation, try to establish as
many constants as possible.
11) Rotate spawn frequently. Do not let cultures
and spawn over-incubate. Over-incubated
Oyster cultures are especially a hazard to the
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