3M Food Safety today announced the results of a scientific study conducted by a third party ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory.
Cost and time associated with performing each platform’s protocol was modeled (evaluated) by comparing workflows.
The research found that the 3M Molecular Detection Assay 2 – Salmonella test saved significant hours and cost versus three other common pathogen detection platforms included in the study.
For each of the four pathogen detection platforms, 96 samples of ground poultry were evaluated in duplicate, resulting in 192 detection method tests per platform, for a total of 768 results.
Time was measured on the aggregate and according to the following parts of the detection protocol: sample preparation; instrument and software set up; sample lysis/capture; and assay setup.
The study focuses largely on speed because turnaround time significantly affects food production and testing, particularly when a producer’s goods are perishable or in high demand.
While the introduction of any rapid microbiology method should have a positive impact, there are still distinctions between each method.
Based on the findings of this study, using the 3M method to perform 10,000 Salmonella tests would save a laboratory between 132 and 312 labor hours annually as compared to the other detection platforms, up to 2.6 times faster, which would potentially save up to US$6,240 annually.
