Broad-specificity immunoassay of low molecular weight food contaminants: new paths to Utopia!

Immunochemical analysis is now a well-established technique that has answered many analytical problems relevant to the agri-food sector, particularly by allowing an increase in sample throughput for assessing food safety and quality. However, to advance the technique beyond relatively simple examples and applications there is a need for antibodies with novel properties, since it is the availability of such antibodies that is the rate limiting step. This short review examines some of the more recent methods that have been adopted by immunochemists to manipulate antibody properties during the development of broad-specificity immunoassays for low molecular weight contaminants of food. These novel approaches include the use of anti-idiotype antibodies, molecular modelling and recombinant anti bodies. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.