This International Standard defines terms related to quality assurance of culture media and specifies the requirements for the preparation of culture media intended for the microbiological analysis of food, animal feed, and samples from the food or feed production environment as well as all kinds of water intended for consumption or used in food production.

These requirements are applicable to all categories of culture media prepared for use in laboratories performing microbiological analyses.

This International Standard also sets criteria and describes methods for the performance testing of culture media. This International Standard applies to producers such as:
— commercial bodies producing and/or distributing ready-to-use or semi-finished reconstituted or dehydrated media;
— non-commercial bodies supplying media to third parties;
— microbiological laboratories preparing culture media for their own use.