Abstract

Fluorescence Polarization Immunoassay for Analysis of Food Contaminants

Sergei Eremin, Professor, Moscow State University

Food quality control for contaminants such as veterinary drugs, pesticides, mycotoxins and many others compounds are a serious and growing problem for world. The food control must be simple, quick and cheap. Moreover, the analysis of food contaminants must be in global scale with high-throughput screening (HTS). The current methods of assays like chromatography techniques and ELISA have several limitations for HTS. Fluorescence Polarization Immunoassay (FPIA) could be the more optimal method for screening of food samples for contaminants. The FPIA is homogeneus method based on the competitive binding and the measurement of fluorescence polarization value for reaction mixture of sample (typically 10-50 µl) and immunoreagents: fluorescent-labeled antigen (tracer) and specific antibodies. The total time required for an assay is few seconds or minutes. The limit of detection for contaminants could be reached lower than typical Maximum Residue Limit (100 ng/ml or 100 ug/kg) after careful optimization antibodies and fluorescein-labeled tracers. The recent results for development of FPIAs for detection of Mycotoxins, Pesticides and Ftorquinolones in food (bread, corn, milk and honey samples) will be discussed.