The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service will be adopting the BAX system to detect E. coli O157:H7 in raw beef.
According to the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, the BAX system has proven to be a rapid, highly sensitive test for the detection of low levels of E. coli O157:H7 in raw beef products.
The FSIS already uses the system to check for Salmonella and Listeria.
FSIS conducts approximately 90,000 microbiological tests for E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella and Listeria annually. The BAX system will reduce the number of false positives in those lab tests.