Infant 3 – Multiplex Real-Time PCR kit for the detection of Cronobacter Salmonella and Enterobacteriaceae in infant formula products

Enterobacteriaceae is a large family of bacteria that includes several foodborne pathogenic genera such as Cronobacter, Salmonella, Shigella and Escherichia coli. Bacteria species belonging to the genus Cronobacter are severe pathogens for infants. Salmonella is one of the most common foodborne pathogens and the most common cause of foodborne-related hospitalizations and deaths. Therefore, these species pose a serious health risk to infants and monitoring of these organisms is required. Moreover, Enterobacteriaceae includes species, which often appear in the food-manufacturing environment, and which often are used as indicators of the hygienic status of food production and handling. Infant 3 is a fast alternative method to the ISO methods (ISO 22964:2017, ISO 6579-1:2017 and ISO 21528-1:2017) for the detection of Cronobacter spp., Salmonella spp. and Enterobacteriaceae in powdered infant formula, infant formula-related products, and environmental samples. Infant 3 is a fast, reliable, and easy-to-use method for detecting all three targets in one reaction and is supplied with the reagents allowing the “Live-only treatment”, if only live bacteria should be detected. Infant 3 is optimal for screenings of dry infant formulas, semimanufactures and milk ingredients (e.g. milk powders, lactose, permeate, whey protein) or environmental swabs. Infant 3 uses standard pre-enrichment of sample in buffered peptone water (optimally including vancomycin) and the complete experiment takes less than 24 hrs. Hence, in comparison to the ISO methods, Infant 3 can save two to four days of testing process.