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

Immunochemical analysis is now a well-established technique that has answer ed 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 example s and applications there is a need for antibodies with novel properties, si nce it is the availability of such antibodies that is the rate limiting ste p. This short review examines some of the more recent methods that have bee n adopted by immunochemists to manipulate antibody properties during the de velopment of broad-specificity immunoassays for low molecular weight contam inants of food. These novel approaches include the use of anti-idiotype ant ibodies, molecular modelling and recombinant anti bodies. (C) 2001 Publishe d by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.