The use of a sandwich ELISA for the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin A in foods from outbreaks of food poisoning.

Foods from outbreaks of food poisoning were examined for the presence of staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) by a sandwich ELISA using microtitre trays as the solid phase and SEA antibodies raised in sheep. The presence of SEA was confirmed by neutralization tests. The toxin was detected in 12 of 15 foods from separate outbreaks of staphylococcal food poisoning; all 15 foods contained a strain of Staphylococcus aureus which produced SEA. For most foods a simple extraction procedure without a concentration step was sufficient to detect the toxin. The method was semi-quantitative and recoveries of SEA added to control foods varied from 30 to 80%. The foods from outbreaks contained between 1 and 10 micrograms of SEA/100 g. SEA was not found in foods from 21 outbreaks in which an SEA-producing strain of Staph. aureus was not isolated.