Food testing strips

Food testing strips are products that help determine whether or not food contains bacteria that can cause foodborne illness. These products can typically be used on food, water, and hard surfaces, and are often designed for quick and easy home and commercial use.

Categories
Currently, there are two categories of food testing strips on the market.

One type of food testing strip is an assay enzyme reactant test. This test requires the food testing strip to be dipped into a blended mixture of food or test samples, distilled water and a reagent. These strips are designed specifically to detect those strains of E.coli and Salmonella that are harmful to humans.

A second type of food testing strip is a gram-negative swab, which is usually administered directly to the food itself. Gram-negative swabs generally work faster than enzyme reactant strips, but they differ in that the gram-negative swabs are designed to detect all pathogens, not just those that can cause foodborne illness in humans.

How They Work
The enzyme reactant test strips react when the buffer solution breaks the bacterial wall. This breach releases enzymes, which react upon contact to the enzyme test strips.

The gram-negative reactant activates when pathogens are present, causing the swab itself to change color.

Reliability
Both types of tests are highly reliable: either type of test will detect harmful pathogens approximately 95-98% of the time.