Surface Swabbing Kit Products
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Available as 25 or 100 flocked nylon swabs and pre-filled tubes of extraction solution designed to help collect surface swabs when validating and verifying cleaning regimes in manufacturing and analytical environments. Swabs can be tested on site or sent to a lab for analysis.
Select a Kit Size below for pricing (INCLUDES VAT) or contact us for multiple kit/standing order discounts.
See below for further product information.
Allergen & cereal Gluten testing has been brought sharply into focus with the implementation of Directive 2003/89/EC in 2004 (fully effective November 2005) and other legislation worldwide. Environmental monitoring of, and on-site or laboratory testing to detect, "key allergens"* is therefore increasingly included in Allergen and other Control Plans within Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point programmes in the food industry.
* i.e. celery, cereals (gluten), crustacea, fish, egg, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanut, sesame, soya, tree nuts "& products thereof" in the EC and the same list minus celery, lupin, mustard, sesame in the USA.
What is the Environmental/Surface Swabbing (ESS) kit designed to do?
Swabbing techniques can help validate and verify clean-down routines of food raw material suppliers & manufacturing facilities, catering establishments and analytical laboratories. In all of these locations the possibility of cross-contact of one commodity, product or laboratory sample with another is very real and cleaning protocols must be effective. The imutest-ESS kit has been specially designed to make the swabbing process simple, effective and completely safe.
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"Flocked" nylon pile swabs, designed to pick up contaminants yet release them effectively, are immersed in a specially formulated swabbing solution and then used to swab a representative area of surface, hard-to-reach location (e.g. within complex equipment), air sampling device etc. When the swab is replaced in the tube it can easily be snapped off and securely capped.
The solution in the tube (approx. 2mls) helps stabilise any proteins present and can be used to carry out several tests using commercially available immunoassay-based Rapid on-site tests or laboratory ELISA assays. The imutest-ESS kit has been validated using a number of allergens, cereal gluten & animal species detection methods from different test kit manufacturers.
The testing of your swabs can either be performed in your own laboratories or, since the solution remains stable for at least one week, even at elevated room temperatures, the swabs can be sent to an analytical service laboratory for analysis.
Each self-contained kit comes ready to use and virtually complete and comprises:
- 25 or 100 individually pouched sterile flocked nylon pile Swabs.
- 25 or 100 pre-filled tubes of stabilising & preservative Swabbing Solution.
- Instructions For Use.
- A Swabbing Identification & Results Form (photocopy as required).
The swabbing solution is a buffered saline solution with food grade surfactant, a vivid blue food dye to help visualise the swabbed area and facilitate cleaning afterwards and a non-toxic preservative. The kits are therefore completely safe to handle and use for all food applications and virtually everything you need is in the box.
How to take a swab sample:
- Ensure that hands & clothing are clean and will not contaminate swabbed samples; it is advisable to wear gloves and wash them between swabs.
- Using an indelible marker, label a Swabbing Solution tube with an identifying code.
- Write the code and other identification details on a copy of the Form provided.
- Remove a swab from its pouch by carefully pushing the non-flocked end of the shaft through the film and withdrawing the swab through the hole created.
- Remove the cap from the labelled swabbing tube and dip the swab in the liquid.
- Take out the swab by sliding the tip up the inside of the tube to remove excess solution.
- Use the wetted tip to swab thoroughly an area of e.g. 5x5cm or 10x10cm in an orderly pattern; this is often done by criss-crossing the area from one side to the other while rotating the swab shaft, then repeating at 90° to the first strokes.
- Place the swab back in the tube, rotate the shaft with the tip against the side of the tube to mix, then withdraw and repeat the swabbing process described above.
- Place the swab back in the tube and carefully break off the thinner part of the shaft nearer the flocked tip. This is most easily done by replacing the swab in the tube, partially replacing the cap, trapping the shaft between the cap and the top rim of the tube, then carefully bending the shaft to a right angle against the rim of the tube.
- Re-cap the tube and mix well to disperse the swabbed material in the solution.
Imutest-ESS Swabbing Solution for use in the dilution of surface swab solutions so that they can be more accurately measured by ELISA methods.
Bulk-packaged (one 25mL bottle) of Imutest-ESS Swabbing Solution is available to purchase, as a single product.
Catalogue No: A6022
