Interlaboratory Profiency Testing trial on the Detection of Staphylococcal Enterotoxins types SEA to SEE in food in Germany 2013.

In the autumn 2013, the National Reference Laboratory for coagulase positive staphylococci (CPS) including Staphylococcus (S.) aureus (NRL-Staph) at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has organized its first interlaboratory profiency testing (ILPT) trial for the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) types SEA to SEE in food. The purpose of the ILPT was to assess the analytical competence of the official laboratories of the Federal German "Länder"authorities. Moreover, it was the intention to gain an overview of the standard methods implemented in the participating laboratories for the purpose of SE detection in food. Five cream cheese samples at three different contamination levels (blank, low, and high) were sent to each participant. In total, 15 laboratories participated to the ILPT: 14 laboratories from 11 Federal German "Länder", and the European Reference Laboratory for CPS including S. aureus (EU-RL for CPS). Data sets from 14 participating laboratories were included in the analysis. Overall, a specificity of 100% (14/14 true negative results), a sensitivity of 55% (31/56 true positive results), and an accuracy of 64% (45/60 true results) was achieved. The majority of participants (9/15) used other analytical methods for the detection of SE in food than the suggested European Screening Method (ESM) v5. To conclude on the ILPT in general it is to state that the majority of participating laboratories failed to correctly identify SE-low-contaminated samples. Further efforts are necessary to improve the analytical capacity and sensitivity as regards the detection of SE in food in Germany.