It's years since I done this stuff, so I can't be certain if my little grey cells have still retained this information properly.
Anyhow as I remember, in the methylene blue reduction test, 1.0ml of a freshly prepared solution of methylene blue thiocyanate is mixed with 10 ml of a liquid food sample,
such as milk. Tubes of the blue-coloured mixture are usually held at 0-4.4"C if it is not immediately convenient to incubate them. The tubes of samples are placed in a thermostatically controlled water bath with sufficient water to heat the samples to 36�C within 10 minutes of incubation. The water level is maintained above the level of the tubes' contents and the samples are protected from light. During incubation the samples are observed for colour change. The time taken for colour change in the test sample from blue to colourless is inversely proportional to the number of metabolically active organisms in the sample.
The same technique is used in reduction tests
involving or 2,3,5 triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) aka resazurin. Resazurin is used in two testing procedures
to assess the microbial quality of milk: the 1 hour test and the triple reading test. In the 1 hour test the extent of colour change is observed after 1 hour of incubation. The triple reading test involves measuring the time required (up to 3 hours) for reduction of resazurin to a specified colour end point. In reduction tests involving tetrazolium salts, TTC is most often used because it is less toxic to bacteria.