DuPont Qualicon said this month that the US Department of Agriculture Food and Safety Inspection Service has approved the DuPont Qualicon BAX STEC assay for screening Shiga toxin-producing strains of Escherichia coli, or STEC.
In a letter to DuPont, the USDA FSIS stated it had no objection to DuPont's claim that its testing suite is comparable to the USDA FSIS reference method for detecting STEC.
To determine the basis of the claim, the FSIS evaluated validation data from the DuPont Qualicon that compared the BAX System to the FSIS reference method regarding low-level inoculum levels, specificity, and sensitivity in ground beef and beef trim, DuPont said.
A recently implemented food safety policy from the USDA adds six STEC serogroups — O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, and O145 — to a class of adulterants in beef that include E. coli O157:H7.
The BAX System STEC suite, which DuPont Qualicon launched in October, tests for virulence genes stx and eae. It allows negative samples to be cleared within an hour, followed by panel tests for positive samples that detect and identify which of the six serogroups may be present.
DuPont Qualicon's BAX System enables PCR-based detection of a variety of pathogens and other organisms in food, environmental samples, and other products.
InstantLabs said this week that its Salmonella Species Test Kit has been certified as Performance-Tested Methods No. 031202 by the AOAC Research Institute for detecting Salmonella species in four food matrices: whole chicken, ground chicken, ground beef, and lettuce.
The kit previously received AOAC certification for use in grains.
The award is a result of independent laboratory studies conducted by Food Safety Net Services. The PTM certification mark is widely recognized by a variety of organizations and government agencies and is awarded to products that have passed unbiased and rigorous evaluation, including tests for usability, success rates, task times, and user satisfaction.
InstantLabs' Salmonella Species Test Kit, designed for use with its integrated Hunter real-time PCR instrument, aims to improve the process for detecting relevant bacteria in food products. The assay enables the rapid and accurate detection of certain Salmonella serotypes.