Listeria species PCR Assay Offers Validated Method for Fast, Simple Detection of Food Pathogens

Food microbiology laboratories can now confidently test to a recognized standard for Listeria species with the Thermo Scientific SureTect Listeria species Assay, which has been granted Performance Tested Methods status by the AOAC Research Institute.

Listeria species originate from the environment and can be commonly found in soils and untreated water, resulting in a risk for animals and plants destined for human consumption.

The SureTect Listeria species PCR Assay has proven to be comparable to the ISO 11290-1 reference method. ISO methods are chosen by many companies against which to test human food, animal feed and environmental samples. The assay, as well as the entire suite of SureTect products, will be on display at the Thermo Scientific booth (208) during the AOAC Annual Meeting and Exposition at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, August 25-28.

“We are delighted to have received validation of our Listeria species PCR assay, which is one of a number of assays we offer for molecular food testing,” says Sumi Thaker, vice president of global marketing, microbiology, for Thermo Fisher Scientific. “The SureTect Real-Time PCR System has been designed to streamline test workflow and reduce time to result, which are primary considerations in today’s pathogen test selection, and all of our current assays are now validated according to the AOAC-RI Performance Tested Methods program.”

The SureTect System was developed to detect microorganisms quickly and accurately in a broad range of foods and associated samples. This unique solution combines:

• Ease of use: Pre-filled lysis tubes and tableted PCR reagents to minimize the number of pipetting steps and hands-on time
• Speed: Optimized single enrichment step for key food matrices and straightforward sample lysis in less than 20 minutes
• Convenience: Common PCR protocols facilitate efficient processing of multiple assays in the same run
• Superior PCR Technology: Probe-based real-time assays for unparallel sensitivity and specificity