A new sensitive method for the detection of chloramphenicol in food using time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay

A time-resolved fluoroimmunoassay (TRFIA) technique was developed to detect chloramphenicol (CAP) contamination in food. By using CAP-ovalbumin, anti-CAP antibodies, and europium-labelled goat anti-rabbit antibodies, an indirect, competitive method for CAP-TRFIA was established. The sensitivity was high, with a detection limit of 0.008 μg/L (8 ppt) for indirect competitive TRFIA formats. Testing showed that the sensitivity of the technique was 2.67 μg/kg in honey, prawn, and chicken muscle tissues, and 0.32 μg/L in milk. The detection range was between 0.008 and 100 μg/L: within this, the intra- and inter-batch coefficients of variation of the CAP-TRFIA method were 6.8 and 13.5 %, respectively. The study suggested that CAP-TRFIA was a simple, sensitive, and cost-effective method of screening large quantities of samples and had good prospects for further application.