US – Thermo Fisher Scientific, an American company that deals in provision of scientific instrumentation, reagents and consumables, has received approval for use of its salmonella testing kit from the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) International.
AOAC International brings together government, industry, and academia to establish standard methods of analysis that ensure the safety and integrity of foods and other products that impact public health around the world.
The SureTect Salmonella Species PCR Assay is capable of conducting salmonella analysis in a broad range of foods and select environmental surfaces, including challenging, high-risk matrices and large sample sizes.
AOAC’s Official Methods of Analysis (OMA) claim for the SureTect Salmonella Species Assay is that it covers 32 matrices which is currently one of the broadest range of foods and selected environmental surfaces covered for an AOAC-OMA validated Salmonella test.
This includes high-risk products from a broad range of foods and production environments, such as cocoa products and other low moisture foods, raw meats and poultry meats, fruits & vegetables, milk & dairy products and ready-to-eat foods that are challenging to test.
The thermo-scientific test is the first ever to offer a validated method for Salmonella testing in large samples for multiple matrix types such as raw beef meats, produce eaten raw, cocoa and chocolate.
Daniele Sohier, senior manager, global scientific affairs at Thermo Fisher expounded that they collaborated with their food laboratory customers to point out gaps in the existing landscape of validated matrices.
“These gaps were addressed in our extended pre-collaborative study, during which 32 matrices, 11 of which were new for the SureTect Salmonella Assay, were tested against the FDA, UDSA and ISO reference methods,
“With such a broad range of matrices, our partners can have confidence that the SureTect Salmonella Assay method is validated, robust and reproducible in almost any area of food manufacturing and processing, “she added.
The Assay protocol will be available to subscribers of AOAC-OMA online in the coming months.
The method was validated against the FDA-Bacteriological Analytical Manual (BAM), USDA-Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and International Organization for standardization (ISO) reference methods, giving food laboratories the world over confidence in the robustness of the assay and the accuracy of its results.
OMA is AOAC’S premier methods program for evaluating chemistry, microbiology, and molecular biology methods.
This first action secures the test method a place in the AOAC gold-standard compendium of methods.
The globally recognized status also guarantees compliance with title 21 of the FDA’s Code of Federal Regulations during official controls.
Since the FDA calls for an AOAC-OMA validated method of Salmonella control for foodstuffs being imported into the United States, SureTect Salmonella Species PCR Assay offers an additional level of confidence in compliance.
