OxyPlate: Anaerobic Blood Agar PlateNo jar. No bag. No chamber.
Just the plate.
OxyPlate is a self-contained anaerobic blood agar plate. Jars, bags, and chambers all remove oxygen with something you buy, wait on, or maintain. OxyPlate builds it into the agar itself, so you inoculate on the open bench and incubate in your standard incubator, anaerobes stacked right alongside your aerobic plates. No chamber, no jar, no gas.
Peer-reviewed. 212 consecutive clinical specimens. Head-to-head against a chamber.
The first true workflow change in 35 years.
The last genuinely new anaerobic method reached the lab in 1989. Everything since has been a variation on the jar, the chamber, or the pouch.
Every method removes oxygen. Each one charges you differently.
Jars, bags, and chambers all work. They also all sit outside the plate, which is where their costs hide. Here is where each one leaves you exposed, and the one column with nothing to buy, wait on, or manage.
| Jars & sachetsWidely used | Anaerobic bagsWidely used | Chamber | OxyPlate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The catch | Batch processing | Extreme cost per test | Capital + upkeep | No catch |
| Culture a single specimen on demand | batch to fill a run | any specimen, immediately | ||
| Read plates without breaking anaerobiosis | open the jar | open the bag | through the lid, first 48h | |
| No add-on consumable beyond the plate | a sachet every run | a pouch every plate, the highest cost per test | gas supply | the plate is the whole system |
| No capital equipment or service contract | purchase + service | |||
| No gas management or gauge documentation | gas, gauges, records | |||
| Incubate in your standard incubator, stacked with aerobic plates | sealed in a jar first | sealed in a bag first | incubate inside the chamber | straight in, one incubator for the whole workup |
Scroll the table sideways to compare →
Every method has red in its column. OxyPlate is the only one that clears every row.
80% of microbiology labs report vacant MLS positions.
Every extra handling step is training time and error risk a short-staffed lab absorbs. OxyPlate’s four-step workflow needs no specialized anaerobic training.
ASM Workforce Survey, Leber et al. J Clin Microbiol 2022
Some strict anaerobes lose viability above 0.5% oxygen.
Every jar-open and airlock cycle re-exposes the plate. The Oxyrase enzyme scavenges oxygen continuously, so recovery is not lost between handling steps.
Benard et al. Microorganisms 2023
Optimal recovery requires a rapid transition to anaerobic conditions.
Batch-and-wait workflows delay that transition. OxyPlate reaches anaerobic at the surface in about 30 minutes, one specimen at a time.
CLSI M56-A guidelines
Anaerobiosis, built into the blood agar plate.
Every other method pulls oxygen out of the space around the plate. The OxyPlate anaerobic blood agar plate pulls it out of the agar itself, from the plate up.
Pull from the refrigerator
Standard refrigerated storage. Grab a plate and go, no pre-reduction or conditioning.
Inoculate on the bench
Streak it in room air like any plate. No chamber, no jar, no glove ports.
Apply OxyBlue
A drop on the lid. The enzyme converts the trapped oxygen to water, and OxyBlue turns white to confirm.
Incubate as usual
Into your standard incubator, stacked with your aerobic plates. Read through the lid the first 48 hours.
One incubator for your whole workup.
OxyPlate goes straight into your standard incubator and stacks right alongside your aerobic plates. Same tech, same bench, same incubator, aerobic and anaerobic together. There is no anaerobic incubation setup, because the plate itself is the anaerobic environment.
The same selective and enrichment media you run now, Schaedler, KVL, and PEA, with the Oxyrase enzyme built into the agar. You’re not changing your media strategy, just how anaerobiosis is achieved.
Reopen, read, reseal
Because the OxyDish reseals, it re-establishes anaerobic conditions up to five times after inoculation. One plate holds your anaerobes across multiple reads.
How the enzyme works
The Oxyrase enzyme system is distributed throughout the medium. As oxygen diffuses into the agar, the enzyme selectively sequesters it and converts it to inert water, which rehydrates the agar. Oxygen is removed where the organisms grow, at the surface where sample meets medium.
Because the plate is sealed by its lid, the enzyme only has to clear the finite oxygen trapped inside, then hold that state. No external gas or chamber required.
Published head-to-head against the chamber. OxyPlate recovered more.
Not a vendor claim. A peer-reviewed clinical comparison on 212 consecutive specimens, reported in both directions.
Strains recovered
of 182 anaerobic strains
Recovery rate
share of the 182 strains recovered
OxyPlate recovered 168 of 182 strains vs the chamber’s 143, in a published 212-specimen clinical comparison.
We show both directions of the comparison, because that’s the only version worth trusting.
Read the full comparison
Of 182 strains, 129 grew on both methods. OxyPlate recovered 39 the chamber missed; the chamber recovered 14 OxyPlate missed. The 39 were predominantly Peptostreptococcus, Eubacterium, and Propionibacterium, attributed to OxyPlate’s prereduced surface.
The 14 showed no organism pattern. Every one of those species was recovered on OxyPlate from other specimens in the same study, so the misses appear specimen-specific, not a method limitation.
The Oxyrase enzyme approach emerged in the 1980s, and OxyPlate was validated in clinical use in the 1990s.
Citation: Thurston M, Gannon CK. Journal of Rapid Methods and Automation in Microbiology 5 (1997) 13-20.
Everything labs ask before they switch.
The honest answers to what most evaluators want to know before committing bench time.
Does it recover fastidious anaerobes, not just the hardy ones?
In the published comparison, OxyPlate recovered 168 of 182 strains vs the chamber’s 143, including the delicate organisms crude technique tends to miss (Peptostreptococcus, Eubacterium, Propionibacterium, Prevotella, Porphyromonas). The 39 the chamber missed were predominantly these fastidious species. Recovery of hardy anaerobes was never the question; the differentiator is the delicate ones.
What does the QC check look like?
OxyBlue is included with every OxyPlate purchase. Apply a single ~1 mm drop to the inside of the lid, and it shifts from blue to white to confirm anaerobiosis, visual proof on the plate itself with no separate chamber indicator or jar strip. One bottle dots about 150 plates and has a 12-month shelf life.
How much does it disrupt our workflow?
Less than the alternatives. Plates inoculate aerobically at the bench, stack and incubate alongside aerobic plates, and read through the lid for the first 48 hours. Study technologists noted it was easier than the chamber: no equipment to fumble with for a gram stain, aerobic and anaerobic work at the same bench, and labor saved from eliminating chamber maintenance, gas, and documentation.
Watch the bench workflow, start to finish:
How does cost compare?
OxyPlate removes the biggest cost drivers. Against a chamber: no purchase, maintenance, or gas. Against jars and bags: the recurring per-run or per-plate consumable is gone. The published cost analysis found OxyPlate cheaper per test than the chamber on both wound and sterile fluid cultures. Exact numbers depend on volume and current method, which is what the pricing and evaluation step is for.
Is this validated or just a vendor claim?
Peer-reviewed and published (1997), run in a working clinical lab on 212 consecutive specimens, head-to-head against a chamber. We’d rather point you to the data and let you replicate it on your own specimens than ask you to take our word.
Shelf life and storage?
Three-month shelf life at 2 to 8°C. Each plate is individually packaged, maintaining the anaerobic environment right up to inoculation, ready the moment you open it. No reduction or pre-conditioning step, no shared pouch to manage down.
Specifications at a glance.
OxyPlate is a self-contained anaerobic blood agar plate powered by the Oxyrase Enzyme System, on the patented, resealable OxyDish. Available as Schaedler, KVL, and PEA anaerobe blood agar.
| Formulations | Schaedler, PEA, and KVL (Kanamycin Vancomycin Laked Blood) |
| System | Patented OxyDish, resealable, with the Oxyrase Enzyme System |
| Storage | 2 to 8°C |
| Shelf life | 3 months from date of manufacture |
| Regeneration | Regenerates anaerobic conditions up to 5 times after initial inoculation |
| Incubation | Standard aerobic incubator, inverted, 5 to 10% CO₂, 35 to 37°C |
| Stacking | Stackable with other plates, in a plate rack |
| Packaging | Individually packaged, or 10-plate packs |
| Indicator | OxyBlue included with purchase |
| Ordering | Direct from Oxyrase, volume-based pricing, quote on request |
OxyBlue indicator
- Included with every OxyPlate purchase
- Apply a single ~1 mm drop to the inside of the lid
- Blue shifts to white to confirm anaerobiosis
- One bottle dots about 150 plates
- 12-month shelf life
Packaging guidance
Available individually packaged or in 10-plate packs. We recommend individual packages unless you consistently process 10 specimens at a time. Working from individually sealed plates limits oxygen exposure to opened plates and protects recovery.
Everything you need to evaluate and order.
O-SCW-BA · PDF Product insert: KVL
O-KVL-BA · PDF Product insert: PEA
O-PEA-BA · PDF OxyBlue product insert
PDF Product guide
PDF Recovery study
Thurston/Gannon · PDF
To order or set up recurring delivery, request a quote below or contact us directly.
Get your pricing. Then prove it in your lab.
Get your pricing
Pricing is set per lab by your anticipated OxyPlate volume, so your quote is built for your operation, not pulled off a list. Tell us your expected volume and we’ll get you a number you can take to your budget.
Request your OxyPlate quote →Validate on your own specimens
Run OxyPlate through the Evaluate Program on your own specimens against your current method. See the recovery, workflow fit, and QC firsthand. No commitment beyond the evaluation itself.
Start an evaluation- Custom volume-based pricingBuilt for your lab’s throughput, not pulled off a list.
- Validate on your own specimensSide-by-side against your current method.
- No obligation until you see the dataThe evaluation is the whole commitment.
No jar, no bag, no gas, no chamber, and no long-term commitment to find out if it works for you. Just your specimens and a side-by-side.