The Health Canada Microbiological Methods Committee has extended its approval of the DuPont™ BAX® System Real-Time PCR Assay for Escherichia coli O157:H7 in the Compendium of Analytical Methods: Laboratory Procedures for the Microbiological Analysis of Foods. The BAX® System assay, published in the Compendium as MFLP-76, is now approved for testing composited samples of ground beef weighing up to 375 g.

Originally approved by Health Canada in April 2011, the BAX® System Real-Time PCR Assay for E. coli O157:H7 provides users with a rapid screening method for detecting presumptive E. coli O157:H7 – including non-motile strains and other atypical O157:H7 variants – in individual 65 g samples of raw ground beef and 375 g samples of raw beef trim. With this extended method approval, users also can elect to composite multiple ground beef enrichments into a single, larger sample before testing to quickly identify negative samples, greatly increase testing throughput and reduce the overall cost per test.

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