Lab and Field Performance of an Enrichment-free Listeria Environmental Assay

Introduction: Environmental monitoring for Listeria is an essential and growing component of food safety.  Existing Listeria environmental tests require enrichment steps that multiply the number of potential pathogens and require lengthy waits between sample and result. 

Purpose: Sample6 has developed and commercialized a revolutionary technology for the detection of Listeria in the environment that radically reduces the time to result by eliminating the need for enrichment. 

Methods: With our simple and accurate AOAC-certified Detect-L test, customers are able to take advantage of results within a single 8-hour shift. 

Results: Here we detail the basic science that underlies the assay and provide details of the performance of the Detect-L test in real-world conditions.  

Significance: We also discuss improvements to the Detect-L assay that further enhance time to result performance while maintaining sensitivity, specificity and robustness.