Skin flora bacteria, such asCutibacterium acnes, are the predominant contaminants of blood products used for transfusion. Platelet concentrates (PCs), a therapeutic product used to treat patients with platelet deficiencies, are stored at ambient temperature under agitation, providing ideal conditions for bacterial proliferation. At Canadian Blood Services, PCs are screened for microbial contamination using the automated BACT/ALERT culture system. Positive cultures are processed and contaminating organisms are identified using the VITEK 2 system. Over a period of approximately 2 years, several PC isolates were identified asAtopobium vaginaeto a high level of confidence. However, sinceA. vaginaeis associated with bacterial vaginosis and is not a common PC contaminant, a retrospective investigation revealed that in all casesC. acneswas misidentified asA. vaginae. Our investigation demonstrated that the media type used to grow PC bacterial isolates can have a significant impact on the results obtained on the VITEK 2 system. Furthermore, other identification methods such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALD-TOF MS) and PCR amplification of the 16S RNA gene were only partially successful in the identification ofC. acnes. Therefore, our findings support a multiphasic approach when PC isolates are identified asA. vaginaeby the VITEK 2 system for proper identification ofC. acnesusing macroscopic, microscopic and other biochemical analyses.