The 100-fold amplification process of Alaska's novel Fastrak technology is key to the high degree of sensitivity of the assay and the fastest time to result (TTR) of 18 hours
Alaska Food Diagnostics says its Fastrak Salmonella rapid test has come out on top in recent trials in which 154 samples of processed cooked chicken and ready to eat (RTE) products were tested in comparison with a conventional culture method (CCM).
Yielding results within 18 hours from sample receipt, the Fastrak assay provided results with over 97% sensitivity and 94% specificity in a range of processed poultry foods.
Samples were bulk inoculated at levels between 0.9 and 3.7 CFU/25g and gave equivalent results to CCM in 95% of the samples tested.
When compared with the CCM requiring three days for a confirmed negative result and over five days for confirmed positive result, the assay saves two to four operating days.
Fastrak uses familiar culture and immunomagnetic methods combined with groundbreaking AK phage technology, and compared with other rapid techniques has a lower cost per test, detects viable cells, kills the pathogen and reduces the risk of contamination.
Extremely easy to use in the laboratory, the assay has a total 'hands on' time of less than 15 minutes.
It comprises two levels of specificity: an immunomagnetic bead separation (IMS) to capture the food pathogen of interest from pre-enrichment broths, and bacteriophage lysis to release intracellular AK from the target cells in a highly specific manner.
A powerful amplification step uses the AK released to mediate the conversion of ADP to ATP and is measured as visible light by the resulting bioluminescent reaction.
