Abstract
Sanita-kunTM SA for Staphylococcus aureus (SkSA), a novel dry sheet quantitative culture system, was evaluated. When the inclusivity and exclusivity of SkSA were assessed using 121 microorganisms including 47 S. aureus strains, the tested S. aureus strains formed blue-colored colonies on the SkSA and all the other microbes failed to grow. The SkSA was then compared with Baird-Parker agar (BP) according to ISO 6888-1, Mannitol salt agar with egg yolk (MSEY), and 3M PetrifilmTM STX (3M-STX) in 100 artificially contami nated food samples. The correlation coefficients between SkSA and BP, SkSA and MSEY, and SkSA and 3M-STX were 0.971, 0.989 and 0.996, respectively. Our results demonstrated that SkSA is a suitable alternative for the enumeration of S. aureus in foods.
