Merck Millipore Offers Quick Tests for EHEC in Food

Merck Millipore, the Life Science division of Merck KGaA, today announced a simple quick test in its product portfolio can detect EHEC (enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli) in food. This strain of bacteria has already infected hundreds in Germany and other regions in recent weeks. The infection is thought to be spread primarily through the consumption of contaminated food. Merck Millipore’s Duopath® Verotoxin is a simple quick test which can detect this pathogen in food. The product range also includes Singlepath® E. coli O157, which detects the most common serogroup of pathogenic E. coli.


“Despite stringent quality control measures, these infections - where we think they are food-born - occasionally emerge. We know how important it is to quickly isolate the bacteria in order to take protect the food supply and ensure human health,” said Roland Heinrich, Head of Merck Millipore’s Biomonitoring Business. “This test is especially helpful to those in the food manufacturing industry and researchers who are all working to identify the bacteria and treat infected patients.”
The Duopath Verotoxin and Singlepath E.coli O157 tests make detection of EHEC bacteria significantly easier than standard methods, especially for food manufacturers and research labs. The one-step design is convenient, requires no special training, reduces errors in application and delivers a positive or negative result within 20 minutes once the food has been enriched overnight. In addition, the fast results save on operating and storage costs and laborious culture methods, and avoid investment in automatic equipment.

Duopath Verotoxin
A common key feature of the special forms of E. coli which trigger disease is the build-up of toxins, which can be used to detect this group. These are divided into verotoxin 1 and verotoxin 2. Verotoxins are also called Shiga-like toxins. Duopath Verotoxin offers the benefit of detecting various strains of E. coli which form verotoxins. The serogroup O157 (including H7) and other serovars, such as O26, O103, O111, O145 and O104, can thus be detected indirectly by detecting the verotoxins.
Duopath Verotoxin allow quick screening, for example, so that more samples can be processed in a given time. Furthermore, Duopath® Verotoxins can be used to confirm the results of classic microbiological tests and save both time and material thanks to their speed. Their sensitivity is equal to that of the traditional method. Because they are so easy to use, the process is safe and no additional equipment is necessary for evaluation. Traditional microbiological methods do not detect the toxins.

Singlepath E.coli O157
The Singlepath E.coli O157 test offers the opportunity to detect the serovariant O157, which has been known for a long time, using an immunological quick test, resulting in a range of benefits. Detection is faster than in classic microbiological methods and is suitable both for screening food and for confirming suspected colonies on agar plates. The test is easy to use and requires no additional equipment. Its accuracy meets that of the so-called ELISA method, which is part of the standard repertoire in many microbiological labs.