Sensitive Monoclonal Antibody-based Sandwich ELISA for the Detection of Porcine Skeletal Muscle in Meat and Feed Products

A monoclonal antibody‐based sandwich enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for the sensitive detection of porcine skeletal muscle in raw and heat‐processed meat and feed products. Heat treatment of meat samples up to 132 °C for 2 h did not affect the assay performance. The assay uses a pair of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs 8F10 and 5H9) specific to skeletal muscle troponin I (TnI). MAb 8F10, reacting to mammalian TnI, is the capture antibody and the biotin‐conjugated MAb 5H9, specific to porcine TnI, the detection antibody. The sandwich ELISA is able to detect 0.05% (w/w) of laboratory‐adulterated pork in chicken, 0.1% (w/w) pork in beef mixtures, 0.05% (w/w) pork meal in soy‐based feed, and 1% commercial meat and bone meal (MBM), containing an unknown amount of pork, in soy‐based feed. This new assay provides a rapid and reliable means to detect the contamination of meat and feed products with trace amounts of porcine muscle tissue to ensure product quality and safety.