These products can typically be used on food, water, and hard surfaces, and are often designed for quick and easy home and commercial use.
Such tests are designed specifically to detect those strains of E.coli and Salmonella that are harmful to humans.
Gram-negative swabs generally work faster than enzyme reactant strips, but they differ in that the gram-negative swabs are designed to detect a broad group of organisms, not just those that can cause foodborne illness in humans.
The enzyme reactant test strips react when the buffer solution breaks the bacterial wall.
People are now working on new ways to enhance these pathogen strips with silk pills and new nano-fiber technology.