Food & Beverage

The MALDI Biotyper® system provides specific and reliable identification of microorganisms within minutes. Implementing the system in the microbial QC workflow can directly translate to significant cost savings through accelerated testing along the entire process chain.

Microbial enrichments of food and beverages can often have desirable consequences but, in the case of contamination, it leads to detrimental products. Inappropriate fermentation processes or contaminants can lead to spoiled or even toxic products. QC laboratories need to manage the challenge to guarantee highest product safety with short testing times and at reasonable costs.

Microbiology QC made easy

The MALDI Biotyper is a Rapid Microbiological Method for microorganism identification based on proteomic fingerprints. Its workflow has been designed to be as robust and easy to perform as possible. Only a few simple steps are required to generate high-quality, reliable microorganism identification within minutes after a positive culture is detected. These time savings can be directly translated into significant cost savings in terms of lost product shipments and production line uptime.

Broad coverage of relevant microorganisms

The MBT Compass reference library currently comprises 7,311 reference spectra of 2,509 species from 433 bacteria and fungi genera, including microorganisms important for food and beverage safety QC. Not only organisms such as the more common pathogens like Listeria, Campylobacter or Salmonella sp. as well as species such as fermentation strains e.g. Lactobacillus and Propionibacterium, but also Clostridia and Chronobacter, important for dairy industry, or spoilage organisms such as Alicyclobacillus and heat-resistant molds for beverage producers, and Legionella for water supply companies can be easily detected.

Listeria identification

One of the most important microorganism genera in food QC control is Listeria which is divided into four groups of which the Listeria monocytogenes group consists of several closely related members. L. monocytogenes is not a leading cause of foodborne illness but it is among the leading causes of fatal infections from food. Therefore rapid and accurate identification of Listeria strains is essential for appropriate management and control. The MALDI Biotyper reference library currently contains spectra of 61 Listeria strains covering eight different species, enabling the identification of L. monocytogenes and closely related group members like L. ivanovii or L. innocua and also of other species e.g. Listeria grayi.

Differentiation is now as easy as it can be by implementing the MBT Subtyping Module into the Listeria identification workflow.

Creating custom libraries

QC laboratories that want to create their own library entries can make use of the optional MBT Compass Explorer Software module to compile customized libraries. These might be libraries with site-specific pathogens and / or important species used for production such as probiotic cultures, acetic acid bacteria, or fermentative yeast.  Customer-generated libraries can be easily exchanged e.g. between laboratories in other plants of the same company.

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