Food Allergens by LC/MS/MS

[James_Ball]

Well another request from our marketing group. Since it was reported that food allergens were the top cause for food recalls they want me to find out about testing for food allergens. I don't know much yet about ELISA and PCR, but I do know about LCMSMS.

Is anyone here doing this type of analysis and if so, what would you recommend as the minimum requirement on equipment. We currently have an ABSciex API3200 as our only LCMS, and I already have several projects they want me to use it for, but I doubt this is one that it would be suited to perform sensitivity wise. I am wondering what costs I should bring up as being needed to get into this testing?

Are we looking at simple QQQ or more like QTOF or Orbitrap type instruments as being best suited for allergen testing?

I like learning new things, but being a "team" of one makes things a challenge at times

[HPLC chemist]

Well another request from our marketing group. Since it was reported that food allergens were the top cause for food recalls they want me to find out about testing for food allergens. I don't know much yet about ELISA and PCR, but I do know about LCMSMS.

Is anyone here doing this type of analysis and if so, what would you recommend as the minimum requirement on equipment. We currently have an ABSciex API3200 as our only LCMS, and I already have several projects they want me to use it for, but I doubt this is one that it would be suited to perform sensitivity wise. I am wondering what costs I should bring up as being needed to get into this testing?

Are we looking at simple QQQ or more like QTOF or Orbitrap type instruments as being best suited for allergen testing?

I like learning new things, but being a "team" of one makes things a challenge at times

I think you are getting ahead of yourself! LC (any form!) is a comparative technology which means you need a 'pure' standard for comparison. Which means you need pure peanut (and others) allergen. Where are you going to get it?

[James_Ball]

Well another request from our marketing group. Since it was reported that food allergens were the top cause for food recalls they want me to find out about testing for food allergens. I don't know much yet about ELISA and PCR, but I do know about LCMSMS.

Is anyone here doing this type of analysis and if so, what would you recommend as the minimum requirement on equipment. We currently have an ABSciex API3200 as our only LCMS, and I already have several projects they want me to use it for, but I doubt this is one that it would be suited to perform sensitivity wise. I am wondering what costs I should bring up as being needed to get into this testing?

Are we looking at simple QQQ or more like QTOF or Orbitrap type instruments as being best suited for allergen testing?

I like learning new things, but being a "team" of one makes things a challenge at times

I think you are getting ahead of yourself! LC (any form!) is a comparative technology which means you need a 'pure' standard for comparison. Which means you need pure peanut (and others) allergen. Where are you going to get it?

From what I have found so far people are using the LCMSMS to look for specific peptide sequences that have been identified for each type of allergen(peanut, walnut, milk, soy, ect) by comparison to a database. Of course those are the less expensive items to work out if we proceed. Best to know if they even want to bite off on the expense of the equipment before getting into the rest of the process.

Last year the asked about protein analysis in veterinarian injectable drugs and when I pointed out it would take a $500K plus instrument to do the work they were asking about the idea was dropped since they had just one customer asking about the testing and needing maybe a sample or two a month.

[HPLC chemist]

I know what you mean. I used to be a part owner of a service lab back in the 80's. It's a business like any other.

[Rndirk]

Interesting topic. Our lab currently does allergens and foreign proteins by ELISA and PCR. But from what i hear, the kits used to perform this have some intrinsic problems, and LC-MS/MS is gaining attention to replace/complement this (not in our lab, yet).

I stumbled across this article which discusses this topic. Good read if you're not familiar (like me) with these immunoassays.

[James_Ball]

Interesting topic. Our lab currently does allergens and foreign proteins by ELISA and PCR. But from what i hear, the kits used to perform this have some intrinsic problems, and LC-MS/MS is gaining attention to replace/complement this (not in our lab, yet).

I stumbled across this article which discusses this topic. Good read if you're not familiar (like me) with these immunoassays.

I'm definitely going to read up on that.

My biggest problem is that we have one LCMS and currently it does testing of Broccoli extracts for Glucoraphanin, Explosives analysis of Ammonium Picrate in well waters, Melamine testing in various products, and working on developing methods on it for Mycotoxins, Aflatoxins, B-Vitamins, D-Vitamins, possibly Vitamin A and E and I also have a method that I haven't used in a while for Preservatives in Tobacco and Nitrosamines in Tobacco. Not enough samples yet to justify a second unit, but too many tests to do it efficiently on only one.

[Rndirk]

working on developing methods on it for Mycotoxins, Aflatoxins, B-Vitamins, D-Vitamins, possibly Vitamin A and E and I also have a method that I haven't used in a while for Preservatives in Tobacco and Nitrosamines in Tobacco. Not enough samples yet to justify a second unit, but too many tests to do it efficiently on only one.

Sounds like you have a lot of work, on LCMSMS alone! Being able to develop methods on an instrument that is not used for routine applications (yet) really is a luxury.

We're doing similar stuff with LCMSMS. How are you doing with vitamins? I haven't got hands-on experience, it still runs on HPLC here. I've heard that they're not the easiest analytes.

[James_Ball]

D Vitamins work great, even in Reverse Phase. I just used the parameters I found on Restek

B Vitamins were a little more work, since you need both positive and negative modes, and some extract better under acidic conditions and some under basic conditions. I have tested the procedures on both vitamin tablets and Cheerios. I was surprised how close I got to the values listed on the Cheerios label once converting from daily allowance to ppb.