Detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin in foods.

A short procedure for the extraction of staphylococcal enterotoxins from food materials has been developed. The procedure involves extraction of the food at pH 4.5, centrifugation, extraction of the supernatant with CHCl(3) (pH 7.5), extraction of the enterotoxin from the water layer with CG-50 ion exchange resin (pH 5.4 to 5.9), and treatment of the eluate with agar and concentration with Carbowax 20-M. The concentrate was extracted with CHCl(3), and the water layer was lyophilized. The dried material was dissolved in a 1% trypsin solution and placed on microslides, which were incubated 24 h at 37 C. The time required for enterotoxin analysis was 3 days with microslides and 1 day with the reversed passive hemagglutination technique.