Seward’s Strainer bag minimises risk of blocked pipettes by sample debris

Worthing, UK – Seward Limited, manufacturer and developer of the world leading, patented Stomacher® Paddle Blender range for over 40 years, has developed Strainer bags for processing samples that produce large amounts of debris that can block pipettes. Irradiated sterile and available in 80 and 400ml sizes the Strainer bags are fully compatible with all laboratory blenders. Ideal for a variety of applications they deliver fully homogenous, virtually debris-free sample every time to ensure trouble-free pipetting and quality results.

Since the pore size on the integrated, robust strainer element within the Seward Strainer bag is 0.5mm, this also minimises the risk of pore blockage that can result in non-homogenous prepared sample. If pores become blocked then, instead of straining, a filtering effect can occur, meaning microbes may be eliminated from the final filtrate and produce an inaccurate final result. Seward Strainer bags overcome the risk of such sample filtering across a broad range of sample types. These range from hard shellfish to highly fatty samples, including cheese and minced beef, through to excessive debris producing products, such as ready meals.

“Our Strainer bags have been developed following initial work that we undertook with industry experts into combining the ‘stomaching’ and filtration element of sample preparation into a single process,” explained Dan Crothers, Marketing Manager, Seward. “After assessing several different options our research emphatically proved this process is not feasible, since filtering out all debris can result in non-homogenous sample which can skew final results. We found that straining to minimise debris is perfectly adequate to prevent pipette blocking issues, whilst ensuring that results give a true reflection of microbial loading.”

About Seward Limited

Seward manufactures the world leading range of Stomacher® paddle blenders and Stomacher® accessories used in sample preparation for microbiological analyses. The company has been manufacturing and developing the world renown and patented Stomacher® Lab Blender for 40 years. The original and still regarded as the best, over 8 million food samples a day are prepared on Stomacher® 400 paddle blender units around the world.

In addition to sample preparation for food safety analyses, within the bioscience market the new developments of the Stomacher® 80 and micro 80 are proving invaluable for safe and efficient sample processing. The Stomacher® 3500 has established itself as the instrument of choice for preparing samples for the new pathogen test protocols requiring jumbo size samples.

The company is based in Worthing, West Sussex, UK with a subsidiary company in Long Island, New York, USA. All Seward machine products are manufactured within the UK and 1 of its 3 worldwide Stomacher® bag manufacturing operations is also UK-based. This ensures control of quality and price to deliver excellent value to global trading partners and laboratory customers.

Seward Limited continues to develop the product range, now with 3 patents to its credit. Stomacher® is the most highly referenced brand name in food safety and life science sample preparation in scientific publications. The company also assists customers with method development through reference searches and sample evaluations within its own development laboratory.

The original and still the best. The Stomacher® – a Seward product trade name.