Oxoid's Dupont Qualicon Bax System Listeria monocytogenes 24E and Bax System Genus Listeria 24E assays enable food microbiologists in Europe, Australia and Canada to obtain next-day Listeria results.
The speed of these assays enables food manufacturers to obtain a 'yes' or 'no' answer before products are released from the factory.
When Listeria is discovered in a food or environmental sample after a product leaves the factory, this can lead to costly product recalls and can damage the reputation of the company.
EC Regulation 2073 recommends that standard ISO methods are used for the detection of food pathogens such as L monocytogenes.
These methods can be limited by the number of steps involved and the long time taken to obtain results.
This can be an issue for manufacturers of products with a short shelf life or those requiring a confirmed negative result prior to release.
The use of an alternative method is only permitted, as outlined in Article 5 of the EC regulation, as long as it is certified by a third party in accordance with the protocol set out in EN/ISO standard 16140 or another internationally accepted or similar protocol.
There are now several methods for Listeria and L monocytogenes that have been certified in accordance with the EC 2073 regulation requirements, giving producers and manufacturers access to simpler, faster alternative methods.
However, many of these require two-stage enrichment procedures and/or different protocols for varying food types.
Some even exclude specific food groups, such as dairy products, from the method completely.
The Bax System Listeria 24E assays require a single 24-hour enrichment step and have a common extraction protocol for all food types.
With a performance comparable to conventional culture methods, these rapid PCR assays detect even low levels of Listeria and have been validated by Afnor (QUA 18/06-07/08) for all human food products and environmental samples.
Samples are incubated in Oxoid 24 Listeria Enrichment Broth for 24 hours prior to a simple extraction protocol, requiring no centrifugation steps.
This is followed by analysis and automatic interpretation on the Bax System.
The Bax System Listeria monocytogenes 24E and Bax System Genus Listeria 24E assays are now available alongside the Oxoid range in Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
