Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes testing

Safety is a significant challenge in the food industry and bacterial foodborne illnesses, including Salmonella and Listeria, have a major socio-economic impact. According to the World Health Organization (2015), an estimated 600 million cases and 420,000 deaths are caused by unsafe food.

Foodborne illnesses can cause severe symptoms and can be life-threatening if not treated correctly. In particular, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella are major foodborne pathogens due to their extreme consequences.

Salmonella is the second most common cause of food poisoning. It has been found in unpasteurized milk, eggs and raw egg products, meat and poultry and can survive if food is not cooked properly.

Listeria monocytogenes is present everywhere, and it also has been found in low numbers in many foods. Eating foods that contain high levels of listeria monocytogenes is usually the cause of the illness. The listeria monocytogenes usually causes disease in vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, children, the elderly, and people with reduced immunity. Among these groups, the condition is often severe and life-threatening.

Neotron, part of the Cotecna group, has recently implemented a new analysis method to detect food pathogens:

• Detection of Salmonella spp. (ELFA) AFNOR BIO 12/32-10/11 2020
• Detection of Listeria monocytogenes (ELFA) AFNOR BIO 12/27-02/10 2020

The main advantages of this technique are: reduction of Turn Around Time (in case of negative screening), accredited methods equivalent to ISO methods and compliant with EC Regulation 2073, performance standardization, possibility to perform accredited and validated pooled analysis.

For more information about the Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes detection please contact us.