Food Safety Antibodies & Antigens: Anti-small molecules (Chemicals, Antibiotics，Mycotoxins, Toxic heavy metal, etc) for immunoassay and rapid test

Pest control is a critical and crucial concern all over the world and for this, accurate diagnostics along with effective therapeutants are needed. The only important area needing investigation is the employment of anti-small molecule antibodies and small molecular competitive antigens in diagnosis. Such antibodies are useful in identifying small molecule compounds such as antibiotics or caffeine used in foods and have various uses in detecting contaminants or allergens in foods. Small molecule competitive antigens are molecules that due to their short structure resemble the target analytes and thereby can compete with them for the binding sites on an antibody and thus determines and measures the amount of the analyte. Essentially, food safety can be classified into microbiological, physical, and chemical and each of them is designed to detect certain proteins or molecules that are involved in polluting the foods. Molecules and antibodies that are directed toward certain molecules, like pesticides, heavy metals, antibiotics, small molecule competitive antigens are useful in activities like detection and quantification. Physical Hazards safety involves the search for foreign objects in the food products may be; metal or glass while Microbiological Hazards safety involves testing the ability of a food product to contain pathogenic microorganisms such as es Salmonella or E.coli. In this way, antibodies that react with certain structures or surface of these microorganisms can be of help in their identification.

In summary, the anti-small molecule antibodies and small molecule competitive antigens have vast prospects in the improvement of the food security. These specific tools can provide very high degrees of sensitivity and selectivity toward specific contaminants or allergens in the food products. With the above-stated objectives, GeneMedi has produced antigens and antibodies for the detection of different small molecules used in foods. Given below are some of the techniques that may be used to detect small molecules of food safety ELISA, LFIA , colloidal gold immunochromatographic assay , CLIA, TINIA, immunonephelometry and POCT [ Table 3 ]. As the information war continues in this area, the probability of finding new diagnostic solutions and therapies to secure food products increases significantly.