Evaluation of a Fluorescent Antibody-Enrichment Serology Combination Procedure for the Detection of Salmonellae in Condiments, Food Products, Food By-Products, and Animal Feeds

The reliability of the enrichment serology (ES), fluorescent antibody (FA), and a combination of the FA and ES procedures for the detection of salmonellae were compared to the Salmonella cultural procedure outlined in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Bacteriological Analytical Manual (BAM). A total of 126 subsamples from 22 different products were analyzed. By utilizing the BAM procedure as the reference standard, a total of 66 samples were positive for salmonellae. Within 44 h approximately 65% of the Salmonella-negative samples could be cleared by the FA test. At the end of 50 h 97% of the Salmonella-negative samples could be cleared by the combination FA-ES test. The FA procedure detected all 66 BAM positives but exhibited a high incidence of presumptive positives which were cultural negatives. The ES procedure detected 64 of the 66 BAM positives but exhibited a low incidence of presumptive positives which were cultural negatives. Incorporating positive FA and positive ES results in a combination FA-ES technique revealed that FA-ES positives were statistically equivalent to BAM positives.