Figure 3.

Average between Escherichia coli (in the left) and Staphylococcus aureus (in the right) quantities detected by multiplex qPCR assay, traditional culture method, and Compact Dry after artificial bacterial inoculation in UHT milk (a), sterile ground beef (b), and sterile oyster meat (c). In qPCR, the gene copy numbers (phoA for E. coli and nuc for S. aureus) determined the bacterial quantities. In traditional culture and Compact Dry methodologies, colony-forming unit (cfu/g or cfu/mL) determined the bacterial quantities in food. Different letters mean statistical difference by Tukey's test (p ≤ 0.05).