A method for analysing, by means of an apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, microbial growth on a solid culture medium, the method including: obtaining, using the processor, image data of the solid culture medium and any microbial growth, for a plurality of pixels in the image data, generating, using the processor, an associated feature vector composed by values obtained by applying one or more filters to the image data, using a classifier to classify, using the processor, each pixel in the plurality of pixels based on the associated feature vector, including inputting the feature vector into the classifier, wherein the classifier has been trained to classify each pixel in the plurality of pixels according to a label associated with a pixel in training image data, based on training sets of feature vectors obtained by filtering image data, and where labels are different for different agar and bacteria types of interest; analysing, using the processor, the results of pixel classifications of each said pixel to determine a series of regions indicative of predicted colonies of the microbial growth, and enumerating, using the processor, the colonies of the microbial growth from the series of regions based on a size and/or shape of each of said regions; deriving, from the analysis, using the processor, a microbiological assessment of the microbial growth on the solid culture medium; and outputting, using the processor, the microbiological assessment, characterised in that the method further includes: using, by the processor, the microbiological assessment of the solid culture medium and the microbial growth for categorizing a culture plate containing said solid culture medium into one of four categories: waste, where the solid culture medium did not include identification of potentially pathogenic bacteria; reincubation required; identification of potentially pathogenic bacteria; and for human review; and sending by the apparatus, based on the assessment, each culture plate to one of several output plate stacks of the apparatus corresponding to each of the four categories. obtaining, using the processor, image data of the solid culture medium and any microbial growth, for a plurality of pixels in the image data, generating, using the processor, an associated feature vector composed by values obtained by applying one or more filters to the image data, using a classifier to classify, using the processor, each pixel in the plurality of pixels based on the associated feature vector, including inputting the feature vector into the classifier, wherein the classifier has been trained to classify each pixel in the plurality of pixels according to a label associated with a pixel in training image data, based on training sets of feature vectors obtained by filtering image data, and where labels are different for different agar and bacteria types of interest; analysing, using the processor, the results of pixel classifications of each said pixel to determine a series of regions indicative of predicted colonies of the microbial growth, and enumerating, using the processor, the colonies of the microbial growth from the series of regions based on a size and/or shape of each of said regions; deriving, from the analysis, using the processor, a microbiological assessment of the microbial growth on the solid culture medium; and outputting, using the processor, the microbiological assessment, characterised in that the method further includes: using, by the processor, the microbiological assessment of the solid culture medium and the microbial growth for categorizing a culture plate containing said solid culture medium into one of four categories: waste, where the solid culture medium did not include identification of potentially pathogenic bacteria; reincubation required; identification of potentially pathogenic bacteria; and for human review; and sending by the apparatus, based on the assessment, each culture plate to one of several output plate stacks of the apparatus corresponding to each of the four categories. using, by the processor, the microbiological assessment of the solid culture medium and the microbial growth for categorizing a culture plate containing said solid culture medium into one of four categories: waste, where the solid culture medium did not include identification of potentially pathogenic bacteria; reincubation required; identification of potentially pathogenic bacteria; and for human review; and sending by the apparatus, based on the assessment, each culture plate to one of several output plate stacks of the apparatus corresponding to each of the four categories.