进入二十一世纪的蛋白质检测——不受三聚氰胺影响的创新性检测方法

Global resourcing and productionhave increased the demand for foodmanufacturers to ensure the safety andintegrity of their products. Though aweakening U.S. dollar and rising costsoriginally forced U.S. food manufactur-ers to consider less expensive importedprotein sources, they have had toreevaluate that strategy because of thevast opportunity for adulterated ship-ments and lack of accurate and timelytesting procedures. Customs inspec-tors and food manufacturers receive amultitude of large shipments every dayof wheat gluten, rice protein, soy meal,and other protein-rich ingredients.Laboratories are already backlogged,and having to wait days for test resultscreates a bottleneck that costs suppliersand end users time and money. Moreimportantly, test methods that do notmeasure protein directly are inaccurateand can inadvertently allow tainted orsubstandard ingredients into the foodsupply, jeopardizing consumers!ˉ healtas well as their trust in the manufactur-ers of the products they use