Detection of chicken meat in raw meat mixtures by a sandwich enzyme immunoassay

Summary A double-antibody sandwich ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) has been successfully developed for the detection of low levels of chicken meat (1–30%) in unheated meat mixtures. The assay uses chicken-specific antibodies, obtained by immunoadsorption of the crude chicken antisera onto immobilized sarcoplasmic extracts from beef, pig and horse, to remove cross-reacting antibodies. The purified antibodies, bound to the wells of a microtitre plate, sequester chicken muscle soluble proteins from saline extracts of meat mixtures. Immuno-recognition is made with similar purified antibodies conjugated to the enzyme horseradish peroxidase. Subsequent enzymic conversion of substrate gives clear optical density differences, when assaying minced beef and pig containing variable amounts of chicken meat.