Agriculture and Food Safety Applications

Government agencies may set food safety standards, conduct inspections, ensure that standards are met, and maintain strong enforcement policies; but, in the final analysis you, the producer, are responsible for delivering safe food.

To help you meet this challenge Research International and Canon Chemical have joined forces to develop a flexible, robotic, fluorometric assay system called the PR 610-2. It has been successfully used for high-sensitivity monitoring of food-borne pathogens and their toxins and can process dirty, raw, unprocessed samples with state-of-the-art sensitivity providing results in 10-15 minutes. It also supports assays for fungi, bacteria, viruses and toxins. The PR 610-2 automatically performs a user-defined, multi-step, fluoro-immunoassay protocol on 1 to 4 different samples by means of each of the system’s four disposable optical waveguide sensors.

These microbial threats range from enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC, E. coli O157:H7) in meat and apple juice, to Campylobacter and Salmonella in poultry, to Listeria in hot dogs and cheese, to Cryptosporidium in fish and water. Recent food-borne outbreaks of disease by these and other microorganisms underscore the importance of food safety and the critical need to develop rapid and accurate tests to identify food-borne pathogens.

E. coli O157:H7 has been detected at 100 to 1000 CFU/ml using the PR 610-2. Each waveguide may be functionalized with a different assay, allowing up to four different assays to be run simultaneously. The results of these assays are displayed on a linked PC, using Windows-based software provided with the system.

Visit the PR 610-2 Food Safety Testing Device product page.