ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the use of immunological approaches to many aspects of food control, such as quantification of food components and fraudulent additives, detection of allergenic components, quality control, and control of technologies applied to food. It focuses on food proteins as targets for quality control, principles of immunochemistry applied to food products, food analysis by immunochemical methods, modifications of epitopes to improve food quality, and immunosensors. The structure of proteins in complex media such as food products can be studied by antibodies, mainly monoclonal antibodies. “Natural” food products, such as milk, meat, and potatoes, contain mixtures of proteins, and it is important to carefully select the protein or proteins to be targets for the design of an immunotest. Many factors need to be considered in the selection of a protein antigen. The antigenicity of a molecule is its ability to bind antibodies.
