Culture medium

The mixture of nutrients, energy sources, salts, growth factors and other components, liquid or solid, that keeps cells or microorganisms alive and growing outside the body. What is fed, at what concentration and when affects both titer and product quality. In Japan, medium components of human or animal origin, such as bovine serum, fall under the Standard for Biological Ingredients, which explicitly covers culture medium components; ruminant-derived materials must come from permitted countries and parts of the animal. Expect Japanese customers to ask for origin statements covering every animal-derived component, including those inside other components.