A method of determining a bacterial load of a food product, especially a meat carcass, comprises the steps of processing a sample of nucleic acid isolated from the food product to amplify and quantify a target region associated gram positive bacteria, and a target region associated with gram negative bacteria, and correlating the quantity of amplified target regions with a bacterial load value for the food product. The target region associated with gram positive bacteria is amplified using a primer set comprising of SEQUENCE ID NO. 3 (gram positive forward primer) or a functional fragment thereof, and SEQUENCE ID NO. 4 (gram positive reverse primer) or a functional fragment thereof. The target region associated with gram negative bacteria is amplified using a primer set comprising of SEQUENCE ID NO. 5 (gram negative forward primer) or a functional fragment thereof, and SEQUENCE ID NO. 6 (gram negative reverse primer) or a functional fragment thereof. A kit of parts for performing the method of the invention is also described.

A means for the rapid detection of bacteria from a liquid culture or slurry is described. A membrane mounted on a solid support is immersed in a liquid culture for a time sufficient to allow bacteria to adhere to the membrane, the membrane is removed from the culture and the number of bacteria adhering to the membrane is counted. The membrane may be either an inanimate membrane or a biological membrane. A test kit for use in the method is also described.

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