Abstract: The subject invention provides for detecting the presence of food residue and/or microorganisms. The invention relates to hygiene monitoring and may be used to test a sample collected from an environment that originally was, or has subsequently been tested and been shown to be, free of sugar.

Abstract: An assay device comprises a tube, a removable top part and a bottom part, wherein an elongate member with a swab at its distal end is mounted on the top part, the top part includes a compartment containing liquid and partly defined by a first frangible membrane that can be ruptured to release the liquid into the tube, and the bottom part contains a reagent and is partly defined by a second frangible membrane that can be ruptured on movement of the bottom part relative to the tube.Reaction occurring in the bottom part can be observed through a window. This reaction may be of the type involving amplification of say, ATP, e.g. by providing AMP, glucose-6-phosphate (G6P), adenylate kinase, glucokinase and reagents that convert glucose (G) to give a color, whereby the following reactions occurAMP+ATP.fwdarw.2ADPG6P+ADP.fwdarw.ATP+G.

Abstract: The subject invention pertains to an assay device suitable for use in testing samples for the presence of microorganisms. The assay device of the subject invention comprises a housing having two chambers therewithin, each chamber being partially defined by a first filter material and each having a liquid inlet, the device also comprising means for holding the first material in a first or second position, respectively, such that the chambers are either separate or in communication. This arrangement allows assays to be made more accurately, since material that is otherwise retained in the corners of the assay chamber can be simply washed away.

Abstract: The subject invention pertains to a combination of enzyme activities comprising an ATP-degrading enzyme and one or more enzymes capable of degrading substances, other than ATP, that are substrates for the light-emitting reaction of firefly luciferase. These activities can be used to treat a growth medium in order to reduce background to negligible amounts, in a subsequent bioluminescence assay.