Baird-Parker developed this medium for the isolation and enumeration of coagulase positive Staphylococci from food and clinical samples. It is a selective medium which applies the ability of Staphylococcus species to utilize lecithinase for metabolizing egg lecithin and to reduce tellurite to tellurium. The medium was found to be less inhibitory to Staphylococcus aureus than other media at the same time being more selective. Subsequently the use of Baird-Parker Agar was officially adopted by AOAC International and is recommended in the USP for use in the performance of Microbial Limit Tests. Recently, ISO committee has also recommended this medium for the isolation and enumeration of Staphylococci.

For the isolation and enumeration of coagulase positive Staphylococci from food and clinical sample.