Allergen measurements are use in the food industry and are also routinely performed as part of indoor air quality investigations and occupational health monitoring. In this chapter we describe how to develop a simple, convenient, rapid test to analyze soy allergens that can be used in production environments by non-skilled staff to facilitate immediate corrective action and minimize risk and that can be produced in laboratories not equipped with sophisticated instruments.The strip assay described consists of a membrane that is bonded to an adhesive support where an absorbent pad is also attached to absorb excess reagents. The membrane is stripped with specific antibodies against soy allergens in this case (test line) and a goat anti-rabbit IgG antibody (control line). The strip is exposed to a mix of sample and gold-conjugated specific antibody. Colored bands are read out visually or by densitometry.
Keywords: Allergen; Lateral flow assay; Monitoring; Rapid test; Strip assay.