Immunomagnetic separation as an alternative to enrichment broths for Salmonella detection

One hundred and twenty foodstuffs were tested for the enrichment of Salmonella species by immunoseparation. The foodstuffs covered six groups: raw chicken, prawns, skimmed milk powder, herbs and spices, cocoa powder and animal feed. Half of the food samples were spiked with one Salmonella species: Salm. ealing, Salm. enteritidis, Salm. give, Salm. typhimurium or Salm. virchow . Comparison of Salmonella recovery with standard methods (selenite cystine broth, tetrathionate broth and Rappaport-Vassiliadis broth) was carried out. Immunoseparation gave similar numbers of true positives to the standard enrichment methods in a short time period. Only immunoseparation isolated Salmonella species from spiked garlic granules demonstrating the possible recovery of sublethally injured cells.