Fast, accurate results are critical for delivering safer food products for consumers and more profitable growth for food companies. That’s why at DuPont Qualicon, our food safety science is focused on continually developing state-of-the-art technologies that are faster and more accurate. In fact, for more than a decade, we have been revolutionizing food safety.

DuPont Qualicon was the first company to apply polymerase chain reacion (PCR) technology to food testing with rapid, DNA-based assays for Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes. Our use of automated PCR processing with tablet-ed rather than liquid reagents created a dramatic increase in speed and consistency—helping to usher in a new era of easy-to-use testing methodology.

Meeting a Global Need
For years, leading food companies and government testing labs around the world have relied on the genetics-based BAX® System to quickly and accurately detect pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria spp., L. monocytogenes, Enterobacter sakazakii, Campylobacter, Staphylococcus aureus and more. In fact, government testing agencies in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Japan and other parts of the world have adopted or validated the BAX® System as an approved testing method to protect their food supply and their citizens.

The BAX® System has been certified by independent authorities such as AOAC and the French Association of Normalization (AFNOR). It’s been adopted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service and approved by government labs in Brazil, China, Canada, Japan and Russia. What’s more, the BAX® System has been included in the newly launched Emergency Response Validation (ERV) program of the AOAC Research Institute, a program designed to respond immediately to emerging food contamination crises.

Delivering Innovations Year after Year
While we’re proud to have been a part of food safety history, we’re always looking ahead to provide the next breakthrough in food safety
science—with technological advances and new assays that make food testing faster, more accurate and more convenient.

Our latest innovation is the BAX® System Real-Time PCR Assay for E. coli O157:H7. Developed in collaboration with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), this assay delivers accurate, same-day results with no up-front concentration steps required. Certified by both AOAC Research Institute and AFNOR, the assay has been validated as an effective method for detecting a single cell of the pathogen in real-world sample sizes.

Our recent incorporation of highly sensitive and adaptable Scorpions® technology enables us to develop rapid multiplex assays for detecting microorganisms that are often difficult to find. With cutting-edge technology like this, we are developing increasingly faster, more sensitive tests for pathogens and spoilage organisms. In fact, we recently entered into a collaborative agreement with the USDA ARS to develop a new test for non-O157 serotypes of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) that will be based on the BAX® System.