MALDI Biotyper® for Food Microbiology

The MBT has been validated as a complete food microbiology solution for confirmation of:

• Cronobacter spp.- Certificate N2017LR72 
• Salmonella spp.- Certificate N2017LR73 
• Campylobacter spp.- Certificate N2017LR74
• Listeria spp and Listeria monocytogenes - Certificate N2017LR75

In accordance with ISO 16140-6:2019 and the MicroVal Rules and Certification Scheme version 8. The certificates are available on www.microval.org.

The MBT has been certified according to the Official Method of Analysis program (OMA) of the AOAC International, for confirmation and identification of:

• Salmonella spp., Cronobacter spp., Campylobacter spp. and other gram-negative bacteria - First Action AOAC Official Method^SM 2017.09
• Listeria spp., Listeria monocytogenes and other gram-positive bacteria - First Action AOAC Official Method^SM 2017.10

The paper describing the multicenter study on First Action 2017.09 has been awarded by AOAC as Manuscript of the Year 2019.

 The OMA 2017.09 and 2017.10 protocols are available on www.eoma.aoac.org.

The MALDI Biotyper^® provides superior resolution, speed and sensitivity, tailored to the needs of food microbiologists. Fast data acquisition and highly accurate, reproducible results in a compact benchtop system make the MALDI Biotyper^® system ideal for all food microbiology applications.

The MALDI Biotyper^® is a Rapid Microbiological Method for microorganism identification based on proteomic fingerprints, useful in food microbiology. Its workflow has been designed to be as robust and easy to perform as possible. Only a few simple steps are required to generate a high-quality, reliable microorganism confirmation/identification - within minutes after detection of a positive selective culture, and without a time-consuming purification step. These time savings can be directly translated into significant cost savings in terms of lost product shipments and production line uptime.

The annually updated MBT Compass^® reference library currently (version 2023) comprises reference spectra of over 4,200 species from bacteria and fungi genera, including microorganisms important for food and beverage safety and quality controls. A dedicated MBT Filamentous Fungi Library is also available, expanding the identification capabilities to 222 species / species groups. The reference libraries are not only a reliable source for confirmation of food pathogens or quality indicators such as Salmonella spp., Listeria spp., L. monocytogenes, Campylobacter spp., or Cronobacter spp., but also allow the quality control of starter cultures and other fermentation, ripening/maturation strains, and the identification of microbial spoilers such as species of Pseudomonadales, Enterobacteriaceae, spore forming bacteria, yeasts and molds.

After a first identification to the genus or species level, the MBT HT Subtyping Module screens some characteristic peaks to improve the discrimination level. This deeper screening is automatically triggered after identification, no additional work is required.

The MBT HT Subtyping Module is very useful for several applications in food safety and food quality, such as differentiation of the closely related Listeria species for fast confirmation of L. monocytogenes. This is now very easy, due to implementation of the MBT Subtyping Module into the MALDI Biotyper^® workflow for food safety.

Also for the characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in livestock and raw milk, the MBT HT Subtyping Module is useful, by automated detection of MRSA isolates carrying the surface peptide PSM-mec.

Quality control laboratories that want to create their own library entries can make use of the optional MBT Explorer^® Software to compile customized in-house libraries dedicated to food microbiology. These might be libraries with site-specific contaminants and/or important species used for production such as probiotic cultures, lactic and acetic acid bacteria, fermentative yeast and ripening molds. Customer-generated libraries can easily be exchanged, e.g. between laboratories in other plants of the same company.