STEC testing accreditation

Our support for industry in ensuring product safety, particularly for certain raw meat and fresh produce, has been further enhanced: our Shiga toxin-producing E.coli (STEC) testing service has been accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard by UKAS (the United Kingdom Accreditation Service). The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method is sensitive enough to detect 2-40 colony forming units per 25g of sample and is absolutely specific for STEC, giving complete confidence in the results.

Foods at particular risk of STEC contamination include raw meat, especially raw ground beef, and seeds intended for sprouting. EU legislation requires the analysis of sprouted seeds for six STEC serotypes (O157, O145, O111, O103, O26 and O104:H4) prior to release onto the market.

We are one of very few facilities in the UK to have the category three laboratories required for STEC testing; this enhanced level of containment is needed because STEC are highly pathogenic.

We developed, optimised and validated the method as part of our £2 million annual research programme, and we now have a total of 114 UKAS accredited methods, which can be found on the UKAS website.

If you think you might need STEC testing, please get in touch.