ENZYME-LINKED-IMMUNOSORBENT-ASSAY TECHNOLOGY TO VERIFY END-POINT COOKING TEMPERATURES OF MEAT-PRODUCTS

Recent outbreaks of Escherichia coli 0157:H7, associated mainly with t he consumption of undercooked ground beef patties, have led to a criti cal review of methods used to ensure the safety of cooked-meat product s. Although thorough cooking can help reduce the incidence of foodborn e disease, there is still the problem of confirming adequate cooking a fter the product has been processed. Determination of the endpoint tem perature to which a product has been cooked is a common way to verify compliance with government cooking regulations. Current methods used b y the United States Department of Agriculture to verify proper heat pr ocessing of beef products are considered subjective and do not provide an adequate margin of safety. There is an urgent need for rapid and a ccurate assays to verify cooking temperatures. The use of enzyme or pr otein markers to assess the endpoint cooking temperature of meat produ cts has been investigated, Several immunoassays, using antibodies that specifically recognize an indicator protein, have been developed to a ccurately verify endpoint processing temperatures in poultry and, more recently, beef products.