NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — DuPont said today that Health Canada's Microbiological Methods Committee has extended its approval of the DuPont BAX System real-time PCR assay for Escherichia coli O157:H7.
The assay is now approved for testing composited samples of ground beef weighing up to 375 g, DuPont said.
The BAX System real-time PCR assay for E. coli O157:H7 was originally approved by Health Canada in April 2011. The assay enables users to rapidly screen for the pathogen, including non-motile strains and other atypical variants, in individual 65-g samples of raw ground beef 375-g samples of raw beef trim.
With the extended approval, users can also elect to composite multiple ground beef enrichments into a single, larger sample before testing to quickly identify negative samples, greatly increasing the throughput and decreasing the cost of testing, DuPont said.