A collaborative study on a method to detect Salmonella in food.

Fourteen laboratories with expertise in Salmonella detection in food joined in a collaborative study. The laboratories performed qualitative analyses of ground pork samples using the proposed detection method. Salmonella Typhimurium (hydrogen sulfide-producing strain) and Salmonella Senftenberg (hydrogen sulfide-nonproducing strain) were used for inoculation. Three levels of Salmonella contamination were used for the study (0, 1-10, and 11-100 cfu/25 g). We evaluated the presence of Salmonella in each sample and the serological O group. Unmarked samples delivered to the laboratories were accurately judged to be inoculated or not inoculated with Salmonella at a 99.8% (419/420) detection rate in this collaborative study. The proposed method is suitable as a standard method to detect Salmonella in food.