Development of an ELISA method to determine adulterated cow milk in camel milk

Camel milk might be adulterated with cheaper cow's milk because of its high price. The establishment of a rapid and reliable method for detecting cow milk in camel milk is a matter of great concern. In the study, the chromatogram of camel milk with different adulteration ratios was analyzed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The peak area of liquid chromatography was analyzed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). β-lactoglobulin (β-Lg) was screened as a characteristic protein. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was established selected β-Lg as the antigenic indicator. This study was aimed at developing an ELISA method that enabled rapid and highly sensitive detection of the proportion of adulterated milk in camel milk. The minimum detection limit was 1% of cow milk in camel milk, and the results were highly reproducible with no significant difference between true and measured values (P > 0.05).