Have you ever wondered if your supposedly Gluten-Free restaurant meal had secret sneaky glutinous invaders? If the go-to snacks you checked the ingredients for time and again are actually the source of mysterious stomach aches and other maladies? Do you wonder if companies are perhaps not as stringent about cross contamination as one would hope?
In steps the Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test, a little friend to help you get to the bottom of the all too common conundrum: Is this food REALLY gluten free? Is it processed on machines that aren’t covered in wheat flour and other invaders? Is it made keeping your allergens and sensitivities in mind?
The ELISA test is one that has been used to check for contamination in all sorts of industries, but most recently it has been popularized for the gluten-free sect. At home testing kits are becoming readily available and are fairly simple to use. Essentially, you grind the food in question into a fine powder, add a provided gluten extraction solution to the powder and place it in a small test tube. You then add a gluten tester strip to said test tube and after about ten minutes, the strip indicates if there is any level of gluten in the product. It is simple, easy, portable, and efficient.
Just how does the ELISA test work, you ask? Essentially, the strip is looking for pesky wayward gluten antibodies, specifically called Gliadin. It does this by affixing a detecting antigen to the surface of the test strip and then applying a specific antibody over that surface so that it can bind to the antigen. “This antibody is linked to an enzyme, and in the final step a substance is added that the enzyme can convert to some detectable signal.” (Wikipedia) The American Celiac Organization states that “the importance of an ELISA test is that is it rapid, inexpensive, and run by a machine. Thus the results are independent of observer variability.” This is just one thing that makes the ELISA test more desirable then others on the market. The machine testing weeds out human error and provides an accurate and unbiased gluten diagnosis for specific foods. A customer need not worry about misrepresentation or misreading caused by technician bias.
Although the science of the ELISA test seems complex, the actual procedure of testing itself is fairly simple. The ELISA test is much more accurate then other researched allergen food tests on the market because it is able to detect gluten in products in as small as ten parts per million, which is essentially the accepted value for your typically gluten sensitive/Celiac afflicted consumer. Other tests only go as low as being able to detect gluten in the 100-200 parts per million realm, which renders them essentially useless to the highly allergic.
In my research I found the ELISA at home tests to be fairly inexpensive. Typically they are about $250.00 for a package of twenty five tests and they get less expensive as you buy in bulk. Those with mere gluten sensitivities but not all out Celiac Disease would not necessarily find it necessary to purchase this product but if one were highly sensitive I imagine the product would be indispensable. As it is quick, inexpensive, accurate, and easy it could be a life saver in new restaurants and travel situations. Besides all these perks, isn’t it kind of cool to be able to bring science into your very own kitchen? I would definitely say its worth the money and effort.
Written by Lacy D.
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