Evaluation of Selective Media for the Quantitative Detection of Major Foodborne Pathogens

초록

The effective monitoring of foodborne pathogens is a cornerstone of public health and food safety assurance. This study systematically evaluated the quantitative detection capabilities of various selective culture media specifically designed for Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli. Priority was given to the media recognized by the Korean Food Code, as well as those widely validated in global standards. To achieve methodological consistency and reduce variability, BioBall™, a commercially standardized preparation containing exact viable counts of reference bacterial strains, served as the inoculum. The efficiency of each medium in recovering the target organisms was assessed under optimized growth conditions. The data were subjected to statistical analysis using a one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s post-hoc test. The results indicated that many of the tested media—MYP and PEMBA for B. cereus; TSC and SFP for C. perfringens; MSA, BP, and BP-RPF for S. aureus; and EMB, MacConkey agar, and dry film formulations for E. coli—performed equally or better than the official standard media. Chromogenic agar, commonly used for foodborne pathogen detection, was also evaluated and found to be better in both accuracy and ease of interpretation. This research underscores the value of BioBall™ in standardizing inoculation protocols and provides compelling evidence supporting the potential integration of alternative media in regulatory microbial testing frameworks.

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