Name: E.coli O157 Water Testing Kit
SKU: ecoli-0157
Availability: BackOrder

E.coli O157 Water Testing Kit

R185.00 – R14,250.00 Excl. VAT

E.coli 0157 colloidal gold detection strip qualitative detection of E. coli O157 in feces, food, water, and other samples. Contains 100 Tests. The degree of color development is proportional to the bacterial content in the sample. The effect was better after increasing the bacteria. It can be used for rapid initial screening of samples to be tested, and positive samples can be separated from bacteria to reduce the workload. Usually 50 in stock, else lead time is 4 weeks.

SKU: ecoli-0157 Categories: Water Quality, Water test strips

Description
Additional information

Description

E.coli O157 Water Testing Kit

Features:

Colloidal gold test for E.coli
Shelf Life is 2 years
Test time is 15 minutes
Storage: 4-30 °C in a cool and dry place away from light

What is E. Coli 0157?

Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) O157 is one of the most Pathogenic Escherichia coli. Symptoms include diarrhea, stomach cramps, and occasional fever. The incubation period is 1 to 14 days. People normally notice symptoms three to four days after infection. About half of those infected develop bloody diarrhea, and symptoms can last up to two weeks. A small number of people with E. coli O157 infection go on to develop a serious condition called haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS). This can occasionally lead to kidney failure and death; the fatality rate is 5% to 10%, and there is no effective treatment for the infection currently. The risk of HUS is highest in children aged under five years.

According to statistics, E. coli O157 outbreaks are caused by food-borne bacteria in 71% of cases (52% of which are beef products, most of which are connected to hamburgers in fast food restaurants: 14% were fruits and vegetables; 5% from unknown food), 16% from person-to-person contact, and 12% from waterborne infection. Thus, food-borne infection is the main pathogenic route of E. coli 0157. We can detect Escherichia coli O157 by the antigenic colloidal gold method.

Here is the expanded, highly detailed section for your webpage. It incorporates the impactful “Target and Usage” format to help specific industries immediately recognize the product’s value for them, and completely breaks down the technical reasons why it should not be used for drinking water.

Application Guide: Where to Use E. coli O157 Rapid Tests

Because the E. coli O157 strain is a highly specific, Shiga toxin-producing pathogen, these rapid test strips are specialized tools designed for pathogen screening and outbreak prevention rather than general water quality testing.

Suitable For (Pathogen Screening & Food Safety)

1. The Meat Processing Industry

Target: Slaughterhouses, meat packers, butcheries, and ground beef processing plants.
Usage: Used for rapid “test-and-hold” protocols. Facilities swab meat trim, offal, or ground beef batches to get a fast negative result. This allows meat to be shipped immediately rather than waiting days for lab cultures.

2. Dairy & Artisan Cheese Manufacturers

Target: Dairies, especially those producing raw milk, unpasteurized products, or artisan cheeses.
Usage: Used to screen raw milk batches before processing or to test environmental swabs from milking equipment to prevent contamination from reaching the final product.

3. Fresh Produce & Juice Packhouses

Target: Commercial vegetable growers, packhouses handling leafy greens (like spinach and lettuce), and producers of unpasteurized juices.
Usage: Used to test rinse water or the produce batches directly to ensure that agricultural runoff has not introduced the O157 strain from the farm into the facility.

4. Food Safety Consulting & Third-Party Labs

Target: Private microbiological testing labs or food safety auditors who consult for food processing plants.
Usage: Used for environmental hygiene monitoring—swabbing stainless steel tables, conveyor belts, and drains in food factories to ensure cleaning chemicals are actively killing specific pathogens.

Not Suitable For (Routine Water Quality & Drinking Water)

This product is not designed for general drinking water analysis. Customers looking to prove water is safe for consumption should not use this test for the following regulatory and biological reasons:

O157 vs. General E. coli (The False Negative Risk)

E. coli O157 is a very specific, dangerous strain of bacteria typically associated with severe foodborne illness. A test strip designed for O157 will only react to that specific strain’s antigen.
General E. coli, by contrast, makes up a massive family of bacteria. While most are harmless to humans, their presence in water is the universal indicator that the water has been contaminated by feces (and therefore might contain other dangerous pathogens like cholera, typhoid, or viruses).
The Risk: If you use an O157 strip on sewage-contaminated water that doesn’t happen to contain the specific O157 strain, the strip will read “negative.” This gives a dangerous false sense of security, as it misses 99.9% of fecal contamination.

The 100 mL Regulatory Volume Standard

Global drinking water standards (including South African SANS 241 and WHO guidelines) require that there be 0 E. coli detected per 100 mL of water.

Most rapid test strips only test a tiny volume (a few drops to 1 mL). Even if a strip were capable of testing for general E. coli, a negative result on a 1 mL sample does not prove the water is safe, because the bacteria could easily be present in the remaining 99 mL of the standard compliance sample.