Multiplexed Detection of Foodborne Pathogens from Contaminated Lettuces Using a Handheld Multistep Lateral Flow Assay Device.

This paper presents a handheld device that is capable of simplifying multistep assays to perform sensitive detection of foodborne pathogens. The device is capable of multiplexed detection of Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium), Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus cereus. The limit of detection for each bacterium was characterized, and then, the detection of bacteria from contaminated fresh lettuces was demonstrated for two representative foodborne pathogens. We employed a sample pretreatment protocol to recover and concentrate target bacteria from contaminated lettuces, which can detect 1.87 × 10