EVALUATION OF A NEW DIPSTICK TEST FOR THE RAPID DETECTION OF SALMONELLA IN FOOD

A new commercial dip-stick method (PATH-STIK) for the rapid detection of Salmonella was evaluated. The test is based on immunochromatographic technology, known from simple clinical diagnostics like the human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) pregnancy tests. Results can be obtained 10 min after completion of the Salmonella enrichment procedure. In total, 94 samples of various origin were screened in this study. The samples used were suspected to be naturally contaminated with Salmonella, thus reflecting the most realistic situation. The new dip-stick method was compared to the ISO 6579 (1990) reference method for the detection of Salmonella in food and feed. Overall specificity of the dip-stick test in comparison with the ISO method was 96.4%; the overall sensitivity in this study was 93.0%. For products with a low water activity, specificity and sensitivity were 97.7 and 88.2% respectively. Products with a high water activity resulted in a specificity of 92.3% and a sensitivity of 96.2%. Since the enrichment procedure for the dip-stick test is based on the official ISO method, this user-friendly method can be used as a rapid screening tool for the detection of Salmonella in food or feed samples.