Quantitative sandwich ELISA for the determination of fish in foods

Allergy to fish represents one of the most prevalent causes for severe food-allergic reactions. Therefore, food authorities in different countries have implemented mandatory labeling of fish in pre-packed foods. Detection of fish proteins in food has previously been based on the use of patient serum. In the present study, a novel sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the quantitation of fish in food matrixes has been developed and validated, using a polyclonal rabbit anti-cod parvalbumin antibody for capture and a biotinylated conjugate of the same antibody for detection. By employing the ubiquitous muscle protein parvalbumin as target the method succeeds to detect a variety of fish. However, the ELISA is specific for fish and does not cross-react with other species. Recoveries ranged from 68-138% in typical food matrixes, while the intra- and inter-assay precisions were < 12% and < 19%, respectively. The sensitivity of the cod parvalbumin ELISA with a limit of detection of 0.01 mg parvalbumin/kg food, about 5 mg fish/kg food, seems sufficient to detect fish protein traces in foods at levels low enough to minimize the risk for fish allergic consumers.