Table 2.

Minimum requirement for equipment and consumables for quality assured Trichinella digestion testing.

Consumable supplies	Equipment
Labelled collection trays or plastic bags for samples	Knives, scissors and forceps for cutting samples and removing non-digestible tissue
Aluminum foil, parafilm or lids to cover the top of the glass beaker	Calibrated scale for weighing samples and/or pepsin (accurate to 0.1 g)
Tubes or measuring cylinders (50 or 100 ml plastic or glass)	Blender with a sharp chopping blade (regularly inspected and/or exchanged). The blender bowl should be made of acid resistant material (glass or stainless steel).
Petri dishes gridded with squares of 1 cm maximum dimension, or larval counting basin for trichinoscope (180 × 40 mm) marked off into squares	Magnetic stirrer with an adjustable heating plate
Pipettes (1, 10 and 25 ml)	Thermometer (accurate to 0.5–1.0 °C, 1 to 100 °C)
Tap water heated to 46 to 48 °C	Teflon-coated stir bar (5 cm long)
Hydrochloric acid (concentrated stock such as 25% or 37%)	Glass beakers (minimum 3 L capacity)
Pepsin powder or granular [1: 10,000 NF (US National Formulary), 1: 12,500 BP (British Pharmacopoeia), 2000 FIP (Fédération international de pharmacie)], or liquid pepsin (660 European Pharmacopoeia units/ml)	Glass or plastic funnel (approx. 15 cm or larger)
Ethanol (70–90% ethyl alcohol)	Sieve made of brass or stainless steel, mesh size approx. 180–200 μm (approx. 10 cm or larger)
Small vials for collection of recovered larvae	Conical glass separatory funnels (minimum 2.5 L capacity) preferably with Teflon safety plugs
	Stereo-microscope with adjustable sub-stage transmitted light source, or trichinoscope with a horizontal table, capable of minimum 10–20 X magnification. Image capture and storage capability (camera) recommended but not required to document suspect results.