VERIFICATION OF A REFERENCE METHOD FOR THE DETECTION OF SALMONELLA SPP. IN FOOD

Abstract

The methods used in laboratories to analyze the hygienic and sanitary quality of foods mustensure the reliability of the results. The objective study was verifying the reference methodfor the detection of Salmonella spp., in the laboratory of Microbiology. It was proven that 100 % of the technical equipment, culture media and reagents used in the verification of the method met the quality requirements. To verify the implementation of the method, a sample of dehydrated egg was analyzed and in the verification of the product, the following foods were studied: cooked beef, egg powder, mortadella, dehydrated whole milk, whole lobster, carrot, chocolate powder and minced chicken croquette. In thetest, the following were determined: the preliminary concentration of the culture, the concentrations of the inoculums to cover three levels of contamination necessary in the verification of the method and the level of detection at 50 % probability of detection (eLOD50). In the implementation verification, the eLOD50 value in the egg powder was less than 5.1 CFU/test portion and in the verification of the products, all the results were less than 4CFU/test portions, so the acceptance criteria are met. This demonstrates the technical capacity of the Laboratory of Microbiologyto execute this analytical method