Detection of low numbers of healthy and sub-lethally injured Salmonella enterica in chocolate

The capacity to detect low levels of healthy and sub-lethally injured Salmonella enterica cells in chocolate by two alternative rapid detection methods iQ-CheckTM Salmonella II real-time PCR (Bio-Rad) and VIDAS® Easy SLM (BioMérieux) was assessed and compared with ISO 6579:2005. Chocolate, a low moisture food known to support the survival of Salmonella, was challenged as food matrix. Buffered peptone water (BPW) did not support the recovery of low levels of sub-lethally injured S. enterica independent of the detection method, while BPW supplemented with milk powder enabled detection by the three examined methods. However, inhibition of real-time PCR was observed since for one out of three repetitions of chocolate inoculated with a low number of sub-lethally injured S. enterica cells, no PCR signal was obtained. Therefore, attention should be paid to the enrichment step to avoid false negative results due to the presence of especially sub-lethally injured Salmonella cells in chocolate. An appropriate sample preparation (such as enrichment media and conditions for incubation) remains the key factor for reliable detection including sub-lethally injured cells and should be evaluated, if necessary optimized, for each detection assay.