SDIX™ announced that its RapidChek Listeria F.A.S.T.™ test system earned Performance-Tested Methods (PTM) certification from the AOAC Research Institute. The AOAC PTM certification validates RapidChek® Listeria F.A.S.T. as equivalent to the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service's (FSIS) 48-hour methodology for detecting all 6 Listeria species on environmental surfaces, including stainless steel, rubber, plastic and concrete. The F.A.S.T. system, Fast -- Accurate -- Sensitive -- Technology, is designed to provide food processors with the benefits of reduced material and processing costs as well as enhanced workflow.
According to the USDA FSIS, dozens of food product recalls within the last 3 years could have been prevented if the industry routinely followed the "test and hold" practice. Furthermore, the USDA FSIS estimates that from 2007 to 2009, 44 recalls of meat and poultry products could have been avoided if this process had been followed as standard practice across the food industry, and that approximately $46 million per year could have been saved by the industry. With "test and hold" now in place, many processors are moving from traditional 40-48 hour Listeria methods to faster, 24-hour rapid methods due to storage and spoilage costs.
Deborah McKenzie, Senior Managing Director of the AOAC Research Institute said, "The AOAC Research Institute provides an independent third-party evaluation of methods. Methods that demonstrate performance equivalent to or better than the reference method are approved and certified as AOAC Performance Tested Methods(SM). This approval means that the SDIX RapidChek® Listeria F.A.S.T.™ method not only demonstrated the ability to perform equivalent to or better than the FSIS reference method, but that for the first time in the AOAC Performance Tested Methods(SM) program, the method evaluation included a required confirmation of all test portions analyzed by the SDIX method with the FSIS reference method confirmation procedure."
Tim Lawruk, Food Safety Market Manager at SDIX, said, "Competitive AOAC PTM-certified, 24-hour Listeria rapid tests, while promoted as `24-hr test methods', actually require up to 2-5 hours of additional analytical time after initial enrichment to obtain test results. The SDIX RapidChek® Listeria F.A.S.T.™ test system enables producers to comply with USDA `test and hold' requirements, while achieving 2-5 hours faster time-to-result, equivalent accuracy and excellent ease of use. During development of this product, we worked with five of our customers to validate our method. All of these customers recognized overall cost savings in their testing operations up to 50%, resulting from improvements in laboratory and processing efficiencies." Mr. Lawruk went on to say, "The SDIX method is also the only AOAC-certified 24-hour Listeria test to meet AOAC's newest confirmation requirements, which further challenge the method by extending the confirmation protocol an additional 24 hours to verify detection of stressed and injured Listeria cells, further ensuring consumer safety."