Food News

Salmonella is a microorganism of great importance in Public Health. It is an enterobacteria, that is, a bacterium that is found in the intestine of people and animals, which is one of the foci of contamination of food and water. It is in 2nd place in terms of microorganism causing food poisoning that occurs in humans. Salmonellosis has great health, social and economic significance and is especially worrisome among at-risk groups such as the elderly, children or sick people.

Salmonella reproduces in the body causing an infection with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea abdominal pain or fever, the so-called febrile gastroenteric syndrome, whose symptoms appear a few hours after ingestion and often require hospitalization. Its incidence is especially high in summer due to the high temperatures, which favor its development. This has meant that there is a very exhaustive control over this microorganism, both at food industry and at the primary production level. The Sector and its operators need to obtain results quickly and reliably in order to make decisions with high economic impact for their business.

AGROLAB Ibérica has obtained ISO 17025 accreditation for the analysis of salmonella in food, feed and environmental samples, using the QFast method, which allows the simple, rapid and reliable determination of the presence or absence of Salmonella spp in less than 24 hours.

Validation was carried out according to the reference standard EN ISO 16140-2 for the validation of alternative microbiological methods, of the European Committee for Standardization and the International Organization for Standardization. This method allows obtaining results equivalent to the ISO 6579:2002 reference method, reducing the total detection time from the sample taking until its reliable detection.

Author: Dra. Isabel Gomez

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