T1-02 Evaluation of the European Network for Staphylococcal Enterotoxins Detection in Food Matrice

Wednesday, May 11, 2016: 10:45 AM
Kokkali Room (Megaron Athens International Conference Center)
Yacine Nia, Université Paris-Est, ANSES, Laboratory for Food Safety, F-94700 Maisons-Alfort, France
Isabelle Mutel, Université Paris-Est, ANSES, Laboratory for Food Safety, F-94700 Maisons-Alfort, France
Adrien Assere, Université Paris-Est, ANSES, Laboratory for Food Safety, F-94700 Maisons-Alfort, France
Sabine Messio, Université Paris-Est, ANSES, Laboratory for Food Safety, F-94700 Maisons-Alfort, France
Jacques-Antoine Hennekinne, Université Paris-Est, ANSES, Laboratory for Food Safety, F-94700 Maisons-Alfort, France
Frédéric Auvray, Université Paris-Est, ANSES, Laboratory for Food Safety, F-94700 Maisons-Alfort, France
Introduction: Staphylococcal food poisoning outbreaks are a major cause of foodborne illnesses in Europe. Their notifications have been mandatory since 2005. The Laboratory for food safety (Anses) has been appointed European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) for Coagulase Positive Staphylococci (CPS) including Staphylococcus aureus (EC No 776/2006 du 23 may 2006). Anses develops reference activities on behalf of the Directorate General Health and Food Safety of the European Commission.

Purpose: Since the validation in 2011 of the European Screening Method (ESM) for staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) detection in food matrices, the EURL for CPS organized three Inter-Laboratory Proficiency Testing Trials (ILPT), i.e. in 2013, 2014 and 2015. The objectives were i) to verify the proficiency of the laboratories from the EURL network in implementing the official SE screening method and ii) to ensure the reliability of the results obtained by the participating laboratories.

Methods: Each ILPT was conducted using the ESM with either the commercial VIDAS SET2 or the RIDASCREEN SET Total detection kit. Eight food matrices were used for these ILPT, including cheese, freeze-dried cheese, tuna, mackerel, roast chicken, ready to eat food, milk and pastry. Food samples were spiked with four SE types (i.e. SEA, SEC, SED and SEE) at different concentrations. For each ITLP, homogeneity and stability studies were performed.

Results: The results showed that ILPT samples were homogeneous (RSD < 15%) and stable. Overall, 31 participants from 27 European countries analysed 155 blank and 620 spiked samples. The results obtained allowed evaluation of sensitivity (> 98%) and specificity (100%) of each detection kit (VIDAS SET2 and RIDASCREEN SET Total). 

Significance: Adding further to the validation study carried out in 2011, the results of three ILPTs assessed the proficiency of the EURL network and the performance of the ESM on a large number of food matrices and samples.