Inter-laboratory validation study of five commercial ELISA test kits for the determination of peanut proteins in biscuits and dark chocolate

Abstract

The results of an inter-laboratory study with five commercially available peanut ELISA test kits to detect and quantify peanut residues in two food matrices (biscuit and dark chocolate) at four different concentrations (0–10 mg peanut kg−1 matrix corresponding to about 0–2.5 mg peanut protein kg−1 matrix) are reported. In general the five ELISA test kits evaluated could detect peanut protein in the two food matrices. In three cases, the study challenged the test kits beyond their intended use for quantification below the manufacturers’ defined cut-off limits. Generally, all five ELISA test kits performed well in the concentration range 5–10 mg kg−1 rather than in the low concentration range (2.0 or 2.5 mg kg−1). The variation in the found recoveries of peanut between the different test kits had a spread of 44–191% across all concentrations. The quantification characteristics between test kits differed significantly at the very low mg kg−1 level. Two test kits performed well even at concentrations below 5 mg kg−1 with reproducibilities of 27–36% for biscuits and 45–57% for chocolate.