Concentration of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin from Food Extract Using Copper Chelate Sepharose.

A simple and rapid method is described for detecting as little as 1 ng each of staphylococcal enterotoxins A, B, and C in 100 mL samples of food extracts. Samples were fractionated on copper chelate Sepharose 6B and the recovery of added staphylococcal enterotoxin was measured by the reversed passive latex agglutination test. An approximate 100 fold concentration of toxin was obtained. The method should prove useful as a partial purification and concentration step in the analysis of foods incriminated in food poisoning outbreaks.