Extraction and separation of staphylococcal enterotoxin in foods: collaborative study.

A study was performed by 15 collaborators on a method for the extraction and chromatographic separation of Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxins from foods. Enterotoxin types A--E were added to crabmeat, milk, ground beef, and potato. Evaluation of the method was based on solubility of food eluates after extraction and separation of the enterotoxin; efficiency of recovery of enterotoxins A--E from foods; and serological categorizing of foods, as determined by the presence or absence of enterotoxins in the 8 food samples studied. The collaborative results on sample solubility, detection and identification of enterotoxin in foods, and differentiation of toxic from nontoxic samples showed overall positive rates of 94.79, 72.69, and 99.23%, respectively. The method, which has been substantiated by statistical evaluation, appears to be effective for the separation of staphylococcal enterotoxins from foods. The Association has adopted the method as official first action and no adverse comments have been received.