As readers of Food Quality & Safety well know, there has been an ever-increasing interest in recent years regarding testing for common food pathogens such as E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella in commercial foods. Publicity around food disease outbreaks has increased in the media, which in turn has sparked an increased interest in governmental regulation around food safety issues, including the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011. More tests are now being required than in the past and testing for food pathogens has become a global concern.
Traditional Pathogen Testing
Figure 1. Typical Food Testing Lab Process Flow
Testing for pathogens in a food testing lab is a multi-step process and preparing the enrichment media constitutes much of the activity. Figure 1 illustrates the typical process flow in the test cycle. After a food sample is received for testing, it is documented for recordkeeping purposes, and weighed. Prior to use, enrichment media is prepared and autoclaved for sterilization purposes, and must pass QC checks, which can take several days. The test sample is added to the QC approved enrichment media, and incubated for a period of time, depending on the test method. Finally, the test sample is analyzed, and the test results are recorded and released to the customer. The test method used determines how the sample is analyzed. For example, testing for common food pathogens is typically not a quantitative (or numeric) test, but rather a simple qualitative (i.e., pass/fail) test.
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