Immunological Analysis of Food Allergens and Other Food Proteins

摘要

USE OF IMMUNOASSAYS FOR THE DETECTION OF food proteins has not been fully exploited, especially from a commercial point of view. Detection of specific food proteins could be used advantageously for a number of purposes, such as detection of proteins associated with foods causing allergies or celiac disease; detection of toxigenic protein contaminants of foods (e.g., staphylococcal enterotoxin and botulinum toxin); detection of economic adulteration (e.g., substituting chicken meat for ground beef); and various regulatory or quality assurance functions, including compliance with labeling claims, kosher processing regulations, and assessment of adequacy of processing operations. Protein-containing foods typically comprise thousands of different proteins often arising from a number of different sources. Specificity of antigen-antibody reactions in immu-noassays allows detection of specific proteins existing within such complex mixtures. Food proteins are generally potent immunogens, so production of antibodies is not typically a problem in development of useful immunoassays. However, development of useful immunoassays often depends on identification of proteins or antibody-binding epitopes specific to a particular food, proteinaceous toxin, or species of interest. Such unique proteins or epitopes would be expected to exist even in the most complex of mixtures.