The words 'needle' and 'haystack' spring to mind when discussing pesticide testing. Over 700 pesticides are regulated worldwide; there are probably an additional 300 or so in circulation and new pesticides are emerging all the time. On top of this, food manufacturers have to contend with continued lowering of acceptable residue limits and pressure to accelerate test result turnaround and product release. These pressures are also the drivers behind developments in testing and analysis technology.

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tool has been developed by Q Chip to speed up bacterial identification with greater accuracy and less variability. Identification using its ReaX Assay 16S beads is based on PCR amplification of the widely-used 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene.

Microbiology specialist Lab M has introduced a new medium for the enumeration of presumptive E. coli in milk and milk products. Its modified lauryl sulphate tryptose broth adds 4-methyl- umbelliferyl-?-D-glucuronide (MUG) to the standard lauryl tryptose broth. This allows presumptive E. coli to be enumerated from presumptive coliforms in milk and milk products.

Trials at a cooked-meat processing plant in the West Midlands have shown how BioCote's silver technology can reduce levels of bacteria by up to 96.4% on surfaces.

ProVap from OspreyDeepclean is the first dry saturated-steam cleaning system to offer proven, microbiologically validated results for the bacterial decontamination of a variety of surfaces and substrates.

As the old joke goes, the only thing worse than finding a beetle in your sandwich is finding half a beetle - where did the other half go?

The number of people suffering from allergies has trebled in the last 20 years. Each year over 6,000 people in England alone are admitted to hospital with allergic reactions and a quarter of those are suffering from life-threatening breathing difficulties, or anaphylaxis. So it's little wonder that allergies are big news, with talk of an epidemic.

Stable Micro Systems has launched an instrument to measure the tensile strength and extensibility of pasta. The Noodle/Pasta Loop Tensile Rig, which attaches to the TA.XTPlus texture analyser helps manufacturers test the resilience and consumer appeal of cooked sheet pasta and noodles.

A range of bug-killing levelling feet for food machinery conveyors has been developed by Arnott Handling Equipment. The blue coloured feet incorporate the anti-bacterial additive Hygienilac.

A fast culture method for the improved isolation, differentiation and identification of Salmonella species in foods has been introduced by Oxoid. Its Salmonella Rapid Culture Method has been developed to provide colonies in just 42h, up to two days earlier than by traditional culture methods.

No matter how many times you do it, the simple task of putting on hygienic shoe covers never seems easy.

The TMS-Console from Food Technology Corporation is a console-controlled force measurement system for testing the characteristics of food products.

Unreadable, smudged or faded labels can be a problem for laboratory data trails. Now thermal transfer print technology labelling from Brady Corporation offers a solution to these problems.

A compact bench-top amino-acid analyser capable of rapidly analysing complex amino-acid mixtures in food and feedstuffs is available from Biochrom.

Addvent has introduced a range of Avik electric insect killers developed to meet the stringent requirements of the food industry.