Chapter 6: ELISA-based Sensing in Food Safety and Quality Analysis

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a widely used biochemical technique for the analysis of food safety and quality. It is extensively applied for the identification of allergens and contaminants (e.g., microbes, herbicides, antibiotics, etc.) in foods. The assay is based upon the interaction between certain analytes and their corresponding antibodies. Compared with other instrumental techniques, ELISA has several advantages, such as small sample volume requirement, low cost, quantitative analysis, simplicity of operation, high-throughput parallel sample processing and fewer extraction steps. In this chapter, the principles, assay development and examples of sample preparation of ELISA are introduced. Its applications for the detection of foodstuffs are described as well. In addition, we introduce lateral-flow immunochromatographic strips – a highly applicable ELISA-based technique for on-site food detection.