Description

Biotech Company Alpha Diagnostic Int’l (ADI) has developed and released a 1-hour horse, pig and rat meat adulteration/contamination ELISA field test, which detects the presence of horse, pig or rat specific proteins in grounded or sliced meat samples from horse, rat, pig/pork, cow/beef, cat, dog, chicken, sheep/goat. ADI’s 1-Hour horse/pig/rat meat adulteration ELISA are primarily geared towards use in settings like meat processing plants, bulk meat buyers or sellers at restaurants or grocery stores, as well qualified laboratories or law enforcement agencies.

The aim is to perform quick and independent testing of meat samples without the hassle and cost of sending samples to outside lab facilities and waiting for results. The exploitation of meat is easier and more pronounced in the absence of a do-it-yourself test. Therefore, introducing a rapid, sensitive, and inexpensive horse, pig and rat meat field test is necessary to detect and control the meat adulteration issue around the world.

With emerging food safety concerns in 2013 of horse meat adulteration of beef in Europe and now rat meat adulteration in China, once again, is the result of limited testing available by the federal agencies. The scandals led to huge financial losses by the meat suppliers due to recall of tainted beef products; these scandals also damage the trust of the consumers.

The horse DNA test, currently in use, can only be performed by a very few expert laboratories; it is time consuming and very expensive. There are test result delays due to the collection, processing, and sending of samples to a few testing labs in Europe. There is an urgent need to develop a simple, rapid, and inexpensive test that can be performed at the grocery stores, meat-packaging plants and by users of meat such as restaurants and fast food suppliers (Taco bell, Burger King Etc).

In comparison to the horse DNA test,  the ADI 1-hour horse/pig/rat meat protein ELISA field test is far superior due to it’s high sensitivity (1 part per million for ELISA vs. 1 part per 10,000 For DNA), speed (1 hr vs. many hours to days), efficacy (process large # of samples). In addition, the overall cost of an ELISA field test is much less, than the total cost of a DNA test.