Evaluation of pcr method for simultaneous detection of Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes in foods

Abstract

Salmonelosis and listeriosis are foodborne illnesses and therefore the rapid and accurate detection of Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes are important for food safety assurance. PCR-based methods offer theoretically many advantages over traditional microbiological methods but they should be evaluated prior implementation in routine testing. The evaluation of PCR method for simultaneous detection of Salmonella and L. monocytogenes in foods is presented as an example of validation of an alternative qualitative method against the reference methods. Appropriate procedure of PCR method is faster than standard microbiological methods, it has the same relative accuracy, relative sensitivity and relative specificity and means good basis for further interlaboratoy validation.