19 February 2009

According to the UK’s Food Standards Agency (www.food.gov.uk), since 2000 the reported number of illnesses from listeria in the UK has doubled, particularly in people over 60 years of age. Consequently its isolation and identification remains of prime concern, especially in the production of chilled food. 

Lab M’s Fraser Broth^PLUS (ISO) and Half Fraser Broth^PLUS (ISO) are designed to give improved results for the isolation of Listeria spp. with both traditional and ELISA methods. Greater selectivity with pure cultures and food samples is achieved by blending acriflavine and nalidixic acid components into the base powder and adding ferric ammonium citrate (X211) to the tempered broth after autoclaving.

Developed as a modification of UVM medium made according to ISO 11290, Fraser Broth is a secondary enrichment broth for the isolation of Listeria spp. The evaluation, carried out by a leading ELISA manufacturer, showed that the performance of the company’s own ELISA kit was greatly enhanced by the use of the new Lab M media without the addition of FAC.

To find out more about Lab M’s complete range of ISO media visit www.labm.com