Food safety laboratories can run QIAGEN's mericon® Listeria kits manually or on QIAGEN’s flexible, efficient QIAsymphony Rotor-Gene Q (RGQ) automation platforms. The mericon® Pathogen Detection Assays for Listeria species and Listeria monocytogenes have now received AOAC Performance Tested Method^SM (PTM) certification from the AOAC-Research Institute. The AOAC have validated the two assays with single enrichment in selected foods from meat, seafood, fruit/vegetable and dairy sectors, and in environmental tests on common food production surfaces. The AOAC evaluation assures food companies and laboratories that QIAGEN’s mericon kits and the QIAsymphony RGQ automation platform have been demonstrated to reliably detect Listeria spp. (PTM #061402) and L. monocytogenes (PTM #061401) in various food matrices and environmental surfaces.

“QIAGEN is addressing the critical needs of today’s food safety market with a broad range of pathogen detection assays and an efficient and complete workflow on our renowned QIAsymphony RGQ automation platform. This now AOAC-PTM^SM-validated mericon assay platform for Listeria offers food producers and laboratories an important solution for protecting food from contamination with this dangerous pathogen,” said Dr. Dietrich Hauffe, Senior Vice President, Life Sciences Business Area. “We are very pleased to add Listeria to our content menu with the AOAC-certified mericon Salmonella Pathogen Detection Kit. The mericon assay platform represents the broadest portfolio on the market providing highly sensitive and specific molecular detection of pathogen nucleic acids for users safeguarding the food supply chain. Ready-to-use pathogen detection kits combined with the QIAsymphony RGQ automation enable users to process over 400 samples in a 12-hour shift.”

Highly flexible and scalable, QIAGEN’s food safety product line addresses every stage of the workflow, from automated extraction to target detection. QIAGEN expects to seek additional AOAC certifications for a range of pathogen assays, such as E. coli O157 and Campylobacter. In addition to PCR-based detection of pathogens, QIAGEN provides systems for the identification and quantification of DNA from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and for the authentication of important ingredients.