Development of a Sandwich Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) for the Detection of Egg Residues in Processed Food Products

Food allergy has become an important food safety concern affecting people’s health and quality of life. As one of the most common allergic foods, egg poses a safety hazard to susceptible individuals. Therefore, it is crucial to develop rapid and sensitive detection methods for allergen monitoring. Sandwich ELISA detection method was developed based on two polyclonal antibodies for the detection of egg white allergens in this study. Goat antisera and rabbit antisera are used as capture antibodies and detection antibodies, respectively. The detection limit of this ELISA detection method is 0.105 ng/mL with high specificity to egg white proteins, and the linear range is between 1 and 20 ng/mL. The mean recovery rate ranges from 70.27 to 101.95% and the mean coefficients of variation of intra-assay and inter-assay are within 2.73% and 9.19%, respectively. The sandwich ELISA detection method can be effectively used for the detection of egg proteins in foods on the market and will help reduce the incidence of egg allergy.