Evaluation of the TECRA immunocapture ELISA for the detection of Salmonella typhimurium in foods

The TECRA immunocapture ELISA was compared with the standard Food and Drug Administration (FDA) method for the detection of Salmonella typhimurium. A variety of foods including dairy (butter, cheese, milk powder, yoghurt and Fromage frais), meat, vegetable and fish products were examined. There was close agreement between the results using the ELISA and the FDA procedure over 176 tests. The ELISA and FDA methods both detected a lower limit of 0.4 cfu Salmonella typhimurium g^-1 in the original food sample but the ELISA result was obtained in 24 h compared with 96 h for the FDA test.