Food testing strips: Difference between revisions

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Food testing strips are products that help determine whether or not food contains bacteria that can cause foodborne illness. These products can typically be used on food, water, and hard surfaces, and are often designed for quick and easy home and commercial use.

How They Work

The enzyme reactant test strips react when the buffer solution breaks the bacterial wall. This breach releases enzymes, which react upon contact to the enzyme test strips.

The gram-negative reactant activates when pathogens are present, causing the swab itself to change color.

Reliability

Both types of tests are highly reliable: either type of test will detect harmful pathogens approximately 95-98% of the time.

External links

Article on Instant Test Strips by Sean Henahan, Access Excellence

References

Olafsdotti, Sigridur and Olaffson, D.R. "02/15/05" United States Patent #6855332 Washington D.C. United States Patent and Trademark Office
Zakrzewski, Z., et al., "The Effects of Adjuvants on the Physical Properties and Active-Substance Release from Oral Suspensions," Goldschmidt Informiert, 57:14-17 (1982).
Lowenkamp, Bill “Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for Salmonella/E.Coli Testing strips“ Hazleshurst, MS Lowenkamp Labs (2007)

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 {{Unreferenced|date=April 2007}}
-'''Food testing strips''' are relatively new on the world market. It is a procedure which can be used to instantly  test if  food contains bacteria that could possibly cause food borne illnesses such as ''[[E.coli]]'' or ''[[Salmonella]]''. The test is easy and can be used  on food, water, and hard surfaces. They are designed for quick and easy home and commercial use.
+'''Food testing strips''' are products that help determine whether or not food contains bacteria that can cause [[foodborne illness]]. These products can typically be used on food, water, and hard surfaces, and are often designed for quick and easy home and commercial use.
 ==Categories==
+Currently, there are two categories of food testing strips on the market.
+One type of food testing strip is an assay enzyme reactant test. This test requires the food testing strip to be dipped into a blended mixture of food or test samples, distilled water and a reagent. These strips are designed specifically to detect those strains of ''[[Escherichia coli|E.coli]]'' and ''[[Salmonella]]'' that are harmful to humans.
-There are currently two categories of food testing strips on the world market.
-There is an assay enzyme reactant test. This requires  the food testing strip to be dipped into a blended mixture of food or test samples, distilled water and a reagent to gain a color change reactant should bacteria be present within an allotted time frame. The strips specifically look for those strains of bacteria of ''[[Escherichia coli|E.coli]]'' and ''[[Salmonella]]'' that are harmful to humans.
-The second food testing strips is a gram negative swab which can be administered directly to the food for a color change reactant. Gram negative swabs are generally faster than the enzyme reactant strips. However, they check for general pathogens and aren’t specific to any bacteria. It is helpful in determining if food has spoiled or gone bad.
+A second type of food testing strip is a gram-negative swab, which is usually administered directly to the food itself. Gram-negative swabs generally work faster than enzyme reactant strips, but they differ in that the gram-negative swabs are designed to detect all pathogens, not just those that can cause foodborne illness in humans.
 [[Image:Salmonella strip wiki.JPG|thumb|220px|left|Sample Salmonella Test Strip]][[Image: E-Coli_strip_wiki.JPG|thumb|220px||Sample E.coli Test Strip]]
-==Usage==
+==How They Work==
+The enzyme reactant test strips react when the buffer solution breaks the bacterial wall. This breach releases enzymes, which react upon contact to the enzyme test strips.
-Enzyme reactant tests strips require that  the food testing strip to be dipped into a blended mixture of food or test samples, distilled water and a reagent to gain a color change reactant should bacteria be present within an alloted time frame. The strips specifically look for those strains of bacteria of ''[[Escherichia coli|E.coli]]'' and ''[[Salmonella]]''  that are harmful to humans.
+The gram-negative reactant activates when pathogens are present, causing the swab itself to change color.
-Gram Negative Reactant Swabs require that the swab be rubbed directly on any food or surface for about two minutes. A buffer solution is added to the swab. The swab is then set for 15 minutes for a color change. Any color change indicates that pathogens are present.
-==How It Works==
-The enzyme reactant test strips react when the buffer solution breaks the bacteria wall and enzymes are release which react upon contact to the assay test strips.
-The gram negative reactant activates only with pathogens are present triggering a color change in the swab.
 ==Reliability==
+Both types of tests are highly reliable: either type of test will detect harmful pathogens approximately 95-98% of the time.
-The reliability of both tests are relatively high with approximately 95-98 per cent, however, lab test must still bring final proof for the identification of the food borne bacteria in the laboratory.
 ==External links==