CHROMagar Salmonella Detection Test Kit. Performance Tested Method 020502

BBL CHROMagar Salmonella was evaluated by an external food testing laboratory for the recovery of Salmonella in peanut butter using the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Bacteriological Analytical Manual (FDA-BAM) procedure. The peanut butter was found to be negative for the presence of Salmonella and, therefore, was seeded with heat-stressed Salmonella at target concentrations of 0.2 and 2 CFU/25 g. The Salmonella-seeded samples remained at room temperature for 14 days before analysis to stabilize the Salmonella in the food environment. Twenty 25 g test portions from each seeded level and five 25 g samples of uninoculated control samples were processed using enrichment broths as outlined in the FDA-BAM procedure. BBL CHROMagar Salmonella-prepared plates were evaluated with the FDA reference method media (bismuth sulfite, xylose lysine desoxycholate, and Hektoen enteric agars). Fractionally positive results were obtained from the lower inoculum level of peanut butter samples. Five positive cultures were recovered from both the BBL CHROMagar Salmonella and reference methods. The two methods gave identical results for all cultures resulting in a method agreement of 100%. McNemar's chi2 test, which assesses the evidence for difference in marginal proportions between two methods, could not be evaluated because it requires one or more discrepant cultures. However, because there were no discrepant cultures, the marginal proportions for the two methods were identical; therefore, there is no evidence of a difference between the methods. This study demonstrates that the results from BBL CHROMagar Salmonella are comparable to the three reference method media for the detection of Salmonella in peanut butter using the FDA-BAM procedures.