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Reel Mahmoud, Global Market Development Manager – Food & Beverage
Jaakko McVey, Senior Product Manager
In the ever-evolving landscape of food safety testing, efficiency, accuracy, and speed are paramount. Traditional culture-media workflows, while validated and robust, often fall short in these areas due to their time-consuming and resource-intensive nature. The dual-enrichment and dual-plating approach, spanning several days from sample collection to final result, limits workflow productivity, efficiency, and throughput.
At Thermo Fisher Scientific, we understand these challenges and have developed the Thermo Scientific Precis Workflow to address them. Our Precis Workflow leverages the power of chromogenic media to revolutionize food safety testing, offering a faster, more streamlined, and cost-effective solution.
The power of chromogenic media
The evolution of rapid culture media-based methods has been made possible by the development of chromogenic media, which contain soluble colorless molecules called chromogens. Chromogens are composed of two parts:
- A substrate (which is the target of a specific enzymatic activity of the microorganism)
- A chromophore
When the bond between the substrate and chromophore is split by a specific enzyme, produced by the target microorganism, chromophore is released. In its unconjugated form, the chromophore expresses a distinctive color. Due to reduced solubility, the chromophore forms a precipitate that imparts unique color to the colony - allowing for quick, clear detection of the target, even against background growth.
Use of a single chromogenic medium, rather than multiple selective media, speeds up overall time-to-result when compared with standard methods and because of its selectivity, the number of subcultures required for further investigation is also reduced or removed, making chromogenic media less labor-intensive and more economical.
In the context of food and beverage testing and when compared to traditional culture-based methods, chromogenic media workflows are simpler to run and generate results in a reduced timeframe, enabling quicker actions and shorter product hold times - vital in a dynamic supply chain.
Download the eBook Chromogenic media for food testing: colouring the path to food safety now to learn more.
Benefits of the Precis Workflow
- Streamlined Workflow: The Precis Workflow simplifies the testing process significantly. By using a single chromogenic medium rather than multiple selective media, the overall time-to-result is greatly reduced. This streamlined approach not only speeds up the process but also reduces the labor intensity and cost associated with traditional methods.
- Faster Time-to-Result: Traditional methods can take several days to deliver results. The Precis Workflow, however, can provide results in just two days. This rapid turnaround is crucial in the food industry, where timely decision-making can prevent public health issues and minimize product hold times.
- Enhanced Accuracy and Reliability: Our Precis Workflow exceeds the performance of ISO standards, ensuring that the method is extremely reliable. The use of a single enrichment step and a single plating step minimizes opportunities for error and ensures consistent, high-quality results.
- Cost-Effective and Scalable: The Precis Workflow is designed to be cost-effective. It reduces the need for multiple consumables and minimizes the risk of cross-contamination. Additionally, it is scalable, allowing labs to handle fluctuating workloads more efficiently.
- Comprehensive Validation: Our chromogenic media and workflows are validated and certified by leading bodies like AFNOR, AOAC, and MicroVal. This broad recognition ensures that our methods are reliable and trusted by food safety laboratories worldwide.
Discover the full workflow:
Featured application: Visible selective enrichment of Salmonella and Cronobacter species
In your busy Salmonella and Cronobacter testing workflows, there is no time for error. A common mistake, particularly in high throughout labs, is the accidental omission or duplication of adding a selective supplement during sample preparation. For clearer selective enrichment of food and environmental samples, the Thermo Scientific Oxoid PrecisBlue Supplement has been specifically designed to reduce workflow errors. The addition of an inert blue dye provides a clear visual reference, enabling easy identification of supplemented samples.
Customer success story
George Owen – General Manager at Westward Laboratories, part of the Samworth Brothers Group, shared his experience of selecting Precis Methods: “We chose the Precis workflow mainly due to the quick time to result. It’s incredibly easy to train people in, and we found that it reduces laboratory capacity needed and plastic waste. The intuitive and straightforward nature of the method helps reduce human error significantly.”
See the full case study:
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For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.