Preventing adulteration of meat foods with less desirable or objectionable meat species is important for economic, regulatory, health and ethnic/religious reasons. The identification of meat species is performed in many countries to assure consumers that the meat and poultry they purchase is unadulterated and properly labeled. The Cooked Meat Species ELISA, developed and utilized by the USDA, is based on antibodies raised to heat-resistant, species-specific, muscle-related glycoproteins and employs the principle of the Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA).

The Cooked Meat Specification Kits are sensitive and specific tests designed to determine the species content in cooked meat and poultry products. The Cooked Meat Specification Kits have been formatted and refined for ease of use and will meet or exceed USDA-FSIS protocol standards for the Cooked Meat Species ELISA.

The Cooked Meat Species ELISA is intended for use as a qualitative test only. The color development is proportional to the original amount of species antigen in the extract, but one should not attempt to quantify the amount of species tissue in a sample based on this assay. Variations in sample content (e.g., % lean tissue, % moisture, % fat, etc.) and variations in sample treatment (e.g., cooking times, temperatures, etc.) will affect the amount of detectable antigen in the extract.

Compatible sample types: cooked, uncooked or processed foods and ingredients

Amount of sample needed: 5 g