bioMérieux to Conduct Salmonella Quantification in Poultry for FSIS
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) and bioMérieux have announced the incorporation of bioMérieux’s GENE-UP® QUANT Salmonella assay into the methodology used by FSIS regional laboratories. FSIS states that Salmonella quantification is part of the agency’s efforts to reduce Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry and to modernize FSIS laboratories’ diagnostic capabilities. Using this new system, FSIS will be able to measure the amount of Salmonella present in a regulatory sample, not solely its presence or absence.
Despite the many Salmonella interventions that have been developed over the last two decades, the incidence of Salmonella infections in humans has not improved. Historically, the common method of Salmonella prevalence testing used by the agrifood industry has been a percentage-based approach focusing on the safety of the final product.