Hygiena^® have announced that its BAX^® system assays for detection of STEC (Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli) and Salmonella from MicroTally^® beef trim sampling cloths were evaluated and approved by the AOAC Performance Tested Methods^SM (PTM) Program. This certification enables the industry to use a simple, non-destructive sampling method, rather than enriching actual meat samples, in conjunction with the BAX^® system assays for the detection of STEC and Salmonella.

The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) collects and analyzes raw beef products for both Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and Salmonella. Typically, a single sample collected by N60 excision or N60 Plus is co-analyzed for the presence of both pathogens. However, these methods are labor intensive and result in product loss. A novel sampling methodology, which utilizes a manual sampling device (MSD) composed of cloth rather than enriching actual portions of meat to be tested, has the potential to produce rapid cost-efficient results when screened with PCR along with other production benefits.¹

The AOAC approval on this matrix applies to the BAX System Real-Time Salmonella (KIT2006) at 10 hours and the BAX System Real-Time STEC (KIT2021, KIT2008, KIT2009) as well as the BAX System Real-Time E. coli O157:H7 Exact (KIT2039), all at 8 hours. The approval demonstrates the ability of the BAX System to accurately detect STEC and Salmonella from one enriched MicroTally MSD, within a single shift.
 
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^1. Wheeler, T. L., Arthur, T. M. (2018). Novel Continuous and Manual Sampling Methods for Beef Trim Microbiological Testing. Journal of Food Protection, 81(10), 1605-1613