Global food safety is a major topic in our world. Since the first discovery of Salmonella several decades ago, the bacteria remain a major worldwide pathogen and one of the most common sources of foodborne poisoning.

Indeed, it is the second most common cause of food poisoning in the EU; in 2017 there were almost 100,000 cases in the EU and 1.2 million people infected in the USA. Additionally, severe cases, which are impacting young children (0-4 years old), the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals, are causing hundreds of deaths every year.

In 1989, Dr Alain Rambach successfully developed and commercialized the first chromogenic media for detection and identification of Salmonella spp.: Rambach^™ Agar.

In a recent interview, Dr Rambach, pioneer of the chromogenic agar, reflected on how a scientist, who is trained to imagine an endless number of options, can still be surprised when bringing an invention to the market, as it happened with the Rambach^™ Agar.

“When I thought about developing a culture medium for Salmonella, my users' target was the food industry. It was a total surprise for me that clinical laboratories in hospitals were also keen to work with the Rambach^™ Agar. I then realized that feces is a very “shitty” specimen, and that color differentiation made analysis of such pluri-microbial specimens much easier.”

"I must confess that I was also surprised by the fact that many users were more attracted by the exuberant raspberry Salmonella colony color, than by the improved specificity I had achieved; by getting rid of the annoying H₂S false-positive bacteria found in conventional agars like XLD or Hektoen". 

"Fascinated by this finding, I then decided to invent by adding an opaque background to the agar to increase the colony color contrast even more. And I can say today, more than 30 years later, that I do not regret it, at all!.”

Nowadays, food laboratories all over the world are still using this media due to its unbelievable performances:

• Very high sensitivity and specificity,
• Intense red coloration for easy reading,
• Fast results,
• Lower workload

Rambach^™ Agar is available from CHROMagar company, through our worldwide distributors' network, in powder form, as well as in ready-to-use plates.