The microbiological safety of food & feed has become an important concern of consumers, industry, and regulatory agencies since high-risk pathogens for humans and animals get transmitted through food and feed. Culture-based methods have been the industry standard for detecting food and feed safety pathogens. Such methods require a qualified specialist to differentiate microorganisms and it takes a long time to produce results.

Molecular detection methods allow accurate, sensitive and specific detection of food and feed safety pathogens by detecting their genetic signatures using real-time PCR method. Industry regulators have validated the molecular detection methods against culture-based and serological methods.

The ready-to-run microchips with lyophilized reagents developed by Lumex Instruments for use with qPCR analyzer AriaDNA offer simple, rapid and specific determination of eleven pathogens in food and feed products (#007RY80). To enhance the reliability of the detection, a set of positive and negative controls for each target is included in the microchip. Internal control (IC) assay is used to monitor internal inhibition for each sample.