Strategic Diagnostic Inc. Introduces New Hygiene Monitoring Test For Food And Food Prep Surfaces

Newark, DE - Strategic Diagnostics Inc., a provider of biotechnology-based detection solutions for a broad range of food, water, agricultural, environmental and life science applications, recently announced the expansion of its product line to include hygiene monitoring, with the exclusive distribution of the Lumitester PD- 10N/LuciPac W system from Kikkoman in the U.S. marketplace.

The Lumitester PD-10N/LuciPac W system is a unique patented platform with a proprietary enzymatic recycling technology that enables detection of both AMP and ATP. It offers significant advantages over other hygiene monitoring systems on the market, which, due to the unstable nature of ATP, may not give a true indication of cleaning efficiencies. AMP is a stable, persistent molecule with the ability to give users a more precise, reproducible indication of the effectiveness of both cleaning and sanitation programs.

"Thorough cleaning of food preparation surfaces is the first line of defense against inadvertent contamination," commented Dr. Orla Cloak, SDI's Market Development Manager for Food Safety. "Leaving even small amounts of biological material on food preparation surfaces can harbor bacteria, increase the rate of bacterial growth and increase the amount of cleaning chemical required to remedy the situation. There is great return on investment from a superior hygiene testing product."

Strategic Diagnostics' Lumitester PD-10N/LuciPac W system possesses several key advantages over competitive methods, including:

• SDI's test provides extremely accurate results even when only small amount of residual biological material is present. This allows the user to take action to produce cleaner surfaces at a lower cost when appropriate cleaning methods are applied. Clean surfaces stay cleaner longer, cost less to maintain, and reduce the risk of inadvertent pathogen contamination.
• The patented reagents are detergent tolerant, another distinguishable advantage over competitive methods. The Lumitester PD- 10N/LuciPac W system sees residual biological material competitive methods can miss when cleaning chemicals interfere with the sample detection.

Matthew Knight, President and CEO of SDI, added, "The Lumitester PD- 10N/LuciPac W system further solidifies SDI's commitment to providing the food market with complete solutions for their testing needs. The system complements SDI's RapidChek product line by further impacting our ability to enhance overall microbiological control and the performance of our customer's HACCP programs. As is the case with all SDI technologies, we are focused on providing a highly differentiated technical solution that delivers outstanding financial performance to the customer."

Rapid sanitation testing using ATP methods has grown in acceptance as a practical way to monitor the hygienic status of food production lines and food service surfaces, as well as to evaluate sanitation procedures. The Lumitester PD-10N/LuciPac W system will add additional value by allowing users to better assess both cleanliness and sanitation in their facilities. In addition to the food market, hygiene monitoring is conducted in the personal care, beverage and environmental industries and it is estimated that about 12 million tests are currently conducted in the U.S. on an annual basis with an average expected growth rate in testing of about 5% per year.

SOURCE: Strategic Diagnostics Inc.