Rapid Detection of Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli (STEC) in Food and Dairy Products

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a high-risk foodborne pathogen that frequently triggers global food safety outbreaks, bringing severe illnesses, product recalls, brand losses and regulatory penalties to the food industry. Fast and accurate STEC detection is critical for consumer protection, regulatory compliance and risk control.

The FSTest™ E. coli STEC Count Plate is a ready-to-use rapid microbial testing solution for STEC screening and enumeration in food samples. Adopting proprietary dry culture and high-selectivity medium technology, it delivers interpretable results in 15–24 hours, eliminating tedious traditional agar preparation and complex lab operations. Ideal for routine quality control, HACCP verification and food safety monitoring, it serves as a cost-effective and efficient alternative to conventional microbiological testing methods.

Why STEC Testing Matters

STEC contamination in meat, dairy, fresh produce and ready-to-eat foods easily causes severe human infections and kidney complications. With increasingly stringent global food safety standards, routine STEC monitoring enables food enterprises to identify hidden risks early, take timely corrective measures, and meet regulatory and customer compliance requirements.

Fast & Reliable Detection Results

Unlike traditional culture methods with complicated procedures and long incubation cycles, this count plate only requires a single 15–24-hour incubation period, greatly cutting down lab workload and speeding up decision-making. It features distinct colony color differentiation: target STEC presents purple-red colonies, while other coliforms show blue colonies, simplifying visual identification and counting.

High Detection Sensitivity

The product achieves a low detection limit of 1 CFU/g (mL), capable of tracing trace STEC contamination in food before products reach the market. Its high sensitivity fully meets the demands of routine safety monitoring, outbreak investigation, supplier verification and quality assurance testing.

Simplified Laboratory Workflow

Traditional microbial testing requires medium sterilization, agar pouring and other cumbersome steps. This pre-prepared count plate simplifies the whole process to sample homogenization, inoculation, incubation and result interpretation. The streamlined workflow lowers training costs, reduces operational errors, and is applicable to both professional microbiologists and ordinary QC personnel.

Wide Industry Application

It is widely applicable to multiple food matrices, covering meat, dairy and various finished food products. In the meat industry, it tests beef, pork, poultry and processed meat products; in dairy industry, it adapts to raw milk, pasteurized milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream and dairy production environments.

It supports full-process quality control including raw material incoming inspection, in-process monitoring and finished product verification, and is suitable for catering chains, government inspection agencies, import and export detection, third-party laboratories and scientific research institutions.

Compatible with HACCP & Food Safety Systems

This testing plate is a core tool for modern food safety prevention and verification, applicable to multiple scenarios:

- HACCP verification and preventive control monitoring

- supplier qualification verification

- Raw material and finished product safety testing

- Food safety audits, corrective action verification and outbreak investigation

- Import and export compliance detection

Regular application of this product effectively optimizes enterprise food safety prevention systems and reduces operational risks.

Global Regulatory Compliance

Routine STEC testing with this product helps enterprises comply with mainstream international food safety standards and management systems, including HACCP, GMP, ISO 22000, FSSC 22000, BRCGS, SQF, FSMA and Codex Alimentarius specifications. Early contamination screening avoids product circulation risks, preventing recalls and regulatory penalties.

Flexible Storage & Long Shelf Life

Featuring convenient transportation and storage, the plates can be transported at room temperature for up to 15 days and stored at 4–10°C after receipt. With a maximum 18-month shelf life under specified conditions, it reduces laboratory inventory waste and ensures stable testing supply.

Core Benefits

- Fast detection: accurate results within 15–24 hours

- High sensitivity: detection limit up to 1 CFU/g (mL)

- User-friendly: dry culture design, no agar preparation needed

- Intuitive identification: distinct colony color differentiation

- Efficient & cost-saving: reduce lab workload and testing costs

- Wide applicability: suitable for meat, dairy and various food products

- Compliant: fully adapts to HACCP and international regulatory systems

- Stable supply: long shelf life and flexible storage conditions