Foods contaminated with pathogens are common sources of illness. Currently, the most common and sensitive
rapid detection method involves the PCR. However, food matrices are complex and contain inhibitors that
limit the sensitivity of the PCR. The use of coated activated carbon can effectively facilitate the removal of PCR inhibitors
without binding targeted bacterial cells fromfood samples.With the use of activated carbon coatedwith
milk proteins, a cell recovery at pH 7.0 of 95.7% ± 2.0% was obtained, compared to control uncoated activated
carbon, which yielded a cell recovery of only 1.1% ± 0.8%. In addition, the milk protein coated activated carbon
was able to absorb similar amounts of soluble compounds as uncoated activated carbon, with the exception of
bovine hemoglobin. This suggests that the use of milk proteins to coat activated carbon may therefore serve as
a suitable replacement for bentonite in the coating of activated carbon, which has previously been used for the
removal of PCR inhibitors from food.