Streptomycin and dihydrostreptomycin are aminoglycosides, antibiotics which act by binding to the 30S ribosome and inhibit protein synthesis. They are used mainly to treat infections caused by aerobic gram-negative bacteria although they also act synergistically against some gram-positive bacteria. Aminoglycosides have also been used as growth promoters in food producing animals and there has been controversy surrounding this due to the potential for the development of aminoglycoside resistant pathogens.

The Randox Food Diagnostics Streptomycin ELISA test kit tests for streptomycin drug residues across a range of food and veterinary matrices.