Please find enclosed the report of the EURL representatives to the annual plenary meetings of ISO/TC 34/SC 9 and CEN/TC 275/WG 6, dealing with international and European standardization in food microbiology, which were held in Washington DC last June. Resolutions/recommendations taken are also appended.
Dr Bertrand LOMBARD
Head of team "coordination of reference activities", manager of European Union-Reference Laboratories Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococci and Milk
We would like to thank the participants to the proficiency testing trial dedicated to the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) types SEA to SEE (N° EILA / ANSES LSAL / CAT-BAC / 2013 / 03) for having taken the time to answer our satisfaction questionnaire sent on 23th May 2014.
In fact, among 31 participants, 27 (87%) participated to this enquiry. Following the analysis of the replies, here is an overall view of the participants’ comments and our follow up:
As announced during the last workshop of the NRLs for Coagulase Positive Staphylococci (Maisons-Alfort, 04-06 June 2014), we are organising a training session on the confirmatory ELISA method (quantitative) for the identification and quantification of staphylococcal enterotoxins (types SEA to SEE) in food matrices.
This quantitative ELISA method will be also used in the aim of the certification of the future certified reference material (CRM) which will be organized by the IRMM-JRC.
As announced during the last workshop of the NRLs for Coagulase Positive Staphylococci (Maisons-Alfort, 04-06 June 2014), we are organising a training session on the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxins (types SEA to SEE) according to the ESM v5 (Extraction by dialysis-concentration and detection using at least Vidas SET2 or Ridascreen SET Total kits).