ENZYME IMMUNOLOGICAL DETECTION OF CHICKEN MEAT IN HEATED MEAT-PRODUCTS

A non-competitive enzyme immunoassay using a commercial available antiserum against chicken IgG and nitrocellulose as support was developed for detection of an undesired addition of chicken meat to heated and sterilized meat products. Chicken meat could be detected to a level of 5 % in moderately heated meat products (sausages) and to 10 % in canned meat calculated on the meat content. Due to the differences of the molecular weights of the IgG of cattle or pig and chicken a verification of the result obtained by enzyme immunoassay is possible by separating chicken-IgG-cleaned up by affinity chromatography - by means of SDS-gelelectrophoresis.