Life Technologies Receives AFNOR Validation for Tests Designed to Detect Listeria Contamination in Food Samples

Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ:

) has received validation from the certification body of Association Francaise de Normalisation for its MicroSEQ® Listeria spp. and MicroSEQ® Listeria monocytogenes assays, molecular tests that are designed to quickly and accurately detect the presence or absence of this food-borne pathogen that most recently has been associated with an outbreak in cantaloupes. AFNOR certification, which validates alternative methods according to the ISO standard EN/ISO 16140 and applicable throughout Europe, enables customers there to adopt rapid testing methods with proven performance equivalency standards. The polymerase chain reaction (

)-based tests, along with Life Technologies' full suite of sample preparation solutions and instruments, decreases the time to results (for negative samples) to 24 hours instead of 4-5 days when using the reference method.