ABSTRACT
Food allergy is a type of non-toxic adverse food reaction, involving aberrant immune responses to food proteins that elicit various symptoms. Food allergy has developed into a significant health concern in many western countries. Food allergy has increased in prevalence and the prevention of acute potentially fatal allergic reactions relies on the strict avoidance of offending foods. To detect and quantify undeclared food allergens, immunoassays offer adequate sensitivity and specificity, and have been commonly used in food industry. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is the most commonly used method in routine food allergen detection. This method targets proteins from an allergenic source, which makes it ideal in validating the removal of allergenic proteins from shared equipment. A sandwich ELISA is the most popular and commonly used non- competitive format for food allergen detection and quantification. A competitive ELISA is based on the competition between a labelled and an unlabelled antigen for limited antibody binding sites.
