New method for peanut allergen detection

A recent paper by researchers in Belgium describes the fast and accurate detection of peanut allergens in complex food matrices using a nanobead-enhanced optical fibre SPR biosensor.

In their study, the researchers compared three different immunoassay methods to detect Ara h1 peanut allergens in chocolate candy bars; a label-free assay, a secondary antibody sandwich assay and a nanobead enhanced assay. While they admit the label-free detection was the most convenient of the methods, they found the SPR fibre assay was twice as fast as the fastest ELISA protocol included in the study, and the detection limit for Ara h1 using the optical fibre SPR bioassay enhanced with nanoparticles was 0.09µg/mL.

Reference: Pollet et al. 2011 Talanta. Vol. 83(5) pp. 1436-41. DOI:10.1016/j.talanta.2010.11.032