Bruker's MALDI Biotyper OMA receives AOAC Method of the Year award in food microbiology

At the 2018 Annual Meeting of the International Association of Food Protection (www.foodprotection.org/), Bruker announces a standardized workflow for any microbial isolate confirmation and identification in food microbiology.

The world-leading, bench-top MALDI Biotyper enables fast microbial identification using protein fingerprinting with short times-to-result and minimum hands-on-time. The MALDI Biotyper is easy to use without any prior knowledge of mass spectrometry. The workflow uses isolated colonies from selective and non-selective agar plates for pathogen and quality indicator testing, or for quality and hygiene controls. The MALDI Biotyper simplifies and shortens confirmation and identification steps, facilitating and harmonizing the workflow with only one system for bacteria, yeast and molds. Each sample is measured in less than a minute. The MALDI Biotyper software includes a user-friendly interface and offers data interpretation that is designed for food microbiology applications.

Two applications on the MALDI Biotyper were recently recognized and published as Official Methods of Analysis (OMA) of AOAC INTERNATIONAL for selected pathogens confirmation and identification of other bacteria from various agar plates, leading to two standardized methods. Together, AOAC 2017.09 and AOAC 2017.10 are considered important achievements and improvements in food testing, and will be awarded the 2018 AOAC Method of the Year by the Official Methods Board of AOAC INTERNATIONAL.

The MALDI Biotyper has also been validated by MicroVal for the confirmation of several foodborne pathogens. The MicroVal committee has members from Europe and North America, including experts from food safety authorities, food testing laboratories and method developers. Together with MicroVal and the Lloyd’s certification body, Bruker has been an early adopter of the new technical rules of ISO/DIS 16140-6 for validation of confirmation and typing methods.