Sample Collection Categories

What are the sample collection categories?

Sample collection categories group the consumables a lab uses to gather and move biological specimens by what each item does in the workflow — a swab to acquire the specimen, a tube and medium to contain and stabilize it, a bag to transport it to the receiving lab, and a label or barcode to trace it. The category page exists so procurement and bench staff can locate the right consumables by function rather than by brand. Buy from these categories when assembling or replacing a specimen collection workflow line item by line item.

What you will find:

• Urine Collection Products – Leak-proof systems designed for sterile gathering and secure diagnostic transport.

• Scintillation Vials – High-clarity, low-background vessels optimized for precise liquid scintillation counting.

• Swabs – Medical-grade applicators for high-recovery clinical and environmental surface sampling.

• Transport Tubes Products – Rugged, screw-cap vessels engineered for vibration-safe specimen movement.

• Biohazard Bags – Heavy-duty, reinforced containment for the safe disposal of infectious laboratory waste.

• Capillary Tubes – Precision-bore glass and plastic tubes for micro-volume hematology and sampling.

• VTM Tubes – Specialized media environments for the stabilization and transport of viral specimens.

• Blood Collection Tubes – Vacuum-sealed vessels tailored for EDTA, serum, and plasma-based clinical workflows.

• Stabilization Reagents – Chemical buffers that lock in the molecular profile of your samples at the point of collection.

• Lysis and Collection Tubes – Integrated systems for simultaneous sample gathering and cellular disruption.

• UTM Tubes – Universal transport media for the multi-purpose preservation of viruses, chlamydia, and mycoplasma.

• Fecal Collection – Standardized, spoon-integrated containers for easy and hygienic stool sample management.

• DNA/RNA Shield – Advanced protective reagents that preserve nucleic acid integrity at ambient temperatures.

• Saliva Collection – Non-invasive, user-friendly kits for high-yield genomic and diagnostic DNA gathering.

• Saline Tubes – Sterile solution tubes for sample dilution, rinsing, and general specimen transport.

How to navigate the sample collection categories

Start with the specimen type
Decide the specimen — nasopharyngeal, anterior nares, oropharyngeal, saliva, urine, blood, stool, tissue — before choosing a product, because the specimen dictates swab tip material, shaft length, and the compatible transport medium.

Choose acquisition and containment together
Swab and transport medium are not independent: respiratory virus PCR pairs a flocked nylon swab with viral or universal transport medium; bacterial culture uses Amies medium; molecular diagnostics often uses phosphate-buffered or guanidine-based stabilizing media that lyse and protect nucleic acid in one step.

Verify sterility, packaging, and regulatory class
For diagnostics, choose sterile, individually peel-pouched swabs; for FDA-regulated workflows, confirm Class I exempt status (swabs) or FDA-cleared status (VTM/UTM systems like MedSchenker) on the certificate of conformity, not just the catalog description.

Plan transport and chain of custody
Add IATA 95 kPa-compliant tubes and biohazard transport bags to keep the specimen path intact from collection to accessioning — particularly for shipping to a reference laboratory.

Specifications context

Each sample collection category is defined by a small set of verifiable specifications: for swabs, tip material and shaft material; for tubes, volume, polypropylene rating, screw-cap design, and IATA compliance; for media, the published formulation (the CDC SOP DSR-052 formula for VTM is the reference). Sterility and individual peel-pouch packaging are baseline for clinical use, as is registration of the product with the FDA. MBP carries MedSchenker collection consumables alongside related sealing and storage products. 

The MBP team can assist with product selection, compatibility details, and bulk supply requirements based on your workflow needs.