SPECIES IDENTIFICATION

RAW - COOKED - MEAT & BONE MEAL

ELISA Technologies manufacturers a variety of meat species test kits that will detect and identify species content in cooked, raw and thermally processed meat, meat products and animal feed.  Our ELISA-TEK^® Meat Species line of test kits have been the Gold Standard in the United States and are utilized by the food processing industry, organizations and government agencies worldwide.  Our kits employ the principles of the Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) and are 96 well kits containing 12 strips of 8 wells.  Utilizing USDA methods and other recently developed immunoassay techniques the ELISA-TEK^® line of meat species assays are sensitive and specific tests designed to determine species content in an array of contexts.  Preventing adulteration of meat foods with less desirable or objectionable meat species is important for economic, regulatory, health and ethnic reasons.  The identification of meat species is performed in many countries to assure consumers that the meat and poultry they purchase is safe, wholesome, unadulterated and properly labeled.

ELISA-TEK^® MEAT SPECIES TEST KITS are utilized by the USDA and SENASA (Argentina) for Animal Species Identification of cooked meat and meat products.  Protocol for these kits are recognized and adopted and appears in the USDA-FSIS Microbiology Lab Guidebook. Click on logos for protocols.

RAW MEAT KITS

This assay is intended to be used to qualitatively detect animal species content in uncooked meat, poultry, meat products, eggs and milk.  The testing method is based on antibodies raised to species-specific serum albumin.  These kits have been formatted and refined for portability and ease-of-use to aid in resolution of species content.

COOKED MEAT KITS

This assay is intended to be used to qualitatively detect animal species content in cooked and canned meat, meat products, processed foods and in meat and bone meals.  The testing method, USDA-FSIS, is based on antibodies raised to heat-resistant species specific, muscle-related glycoproteins.  These kits have been formatted and refined to meet or exceed USDA-FSIS protocols for cooked meat species ELISA.

MEAT and BONE MEAL KITS

This assay is intended to be used to qualitatively determine whether meat and bone meals containing >10% blood-fed porcine tissues have been thermally processed in accordance with EU guidelines (133 C and 3 bars of pressure for 20 minutes).  This test method is based on polyclonal antibodies raised to heat stable porcine specific, muscle related glycoproteins that are detectable until heated to EU specifications.  The presence of these heat-resistant pork antigens in meat and bone meals in significant amounts indicate the sample has not received adequate thermal processing.

These assays are intended to be used for the detection of porcine or ruminant muscle protein in meat and bone meals, animals feeds, cooked and uncooked foods.  The newest method for speciation of products containing animal proteins is based on patented monoclonal antibodies (troponin I) to a thermo-stable, skeletal muscle specific antigen and offers improved analytical performance for detection of species content in thermally processed products.  These tests will detect porcine or ruminant content in products processed at temperatures exceeding 133 C and 3 bars of pressure and is both muscle tissue and can identify feeds containing banned tissues.

This kit provides a protocol and all materials to improve the sensitivity of the MELISA-TEK^® RUMINANT assay.  With this kit, ruminant meat and bone meals can be detected at 0.1% (w/w) in feeds, and ruminant muscle tissue can be detected at 0.01% in solution.

SEAFOOD - Raw and Cooked

The EZ Pangasius assay is an easy-to-use field test that will quickly identify cooked or raw filets as Pangasius. It was designed to positively identify filets from Pangasius while not reacting to filets from other fish species.