Neogen Corp. announced that it has released BetaStar Advanced — the easiest method to test for antibiotics in milk. BetaStar Advanced has been reviewed by the Food & Drug Administration, approved for use by the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments and validated by the AOAC Research Institute.

The new BetaStar Advanced tests for beta-lactam and tetracycline antibiotics, combined with the new Raptor Integrated Analysis Platform, form the next generation in antibiotic testing. The Raptor platform automatically incubates and analyzes up to three milk samples independently and simultaneously, providing a scalable solution for testing.

With the U.S. dairy industry in mind, Neogen said it developed the only rapid method that tests at the 300 parts per billion tolerance level for tetracyclines. The new BetaStar Advanced for Tetracyclines does not require a dilution for confirmation testing, while BetaStar Advanced for Beta-lactams detects the six antibiotics in the beta-lactam class required by regulators.

"Our innovative Raptor platform is the result of almost three years of research and development effort in close collaboration with Neogen's thousands of dairy customers in the U.S. and around the world," Neogen president and chief executive officer John Adent said. "Neogen has made investments in instrumentation and software development to meet the growing needs of our customers. We are pleased to bring this next-generation platform to the marketplace, which is a product of our continued investment in innovation."

"With Raptor, you have the flexibility to add up to three different tests that can be analyzed simultaneously for the same milk sample, and you can run three different samples at the same time — for a total of up to nine tests at once," said Jeff Demey, Neogen sales director for the dairy market. "For example, you can test the same sample for beta-lactams and tetracyclines at the same time or (test) three different samples for beta-lactams. Raptor greatly simplifies the testing process and provides the best option for testing for antibiotics."

Neogen said the results of the AOAC validation reports demonstrated that the BetaStar Advanced tests produce consistent and reliable data for evaluating milk samples for the target antibiotics at the FDA tolerance levels.

Neogen develops and markets products dedicated to food and animal safety through its Food Safety Division and Animal Safety Division.