Denaturation of egg antigens by cooking

Abstract

Changes in egg protein contents by cooking were measured with an ELISA kit using Tris-HCl buffer in model foods including cake, meatballs, pasta and pudding made with whole egg, egg-white and egg-yolk. The egg protein contents were lowest in the deep-fried model foods of cakes and meat-balls. Ovalbumin (OVA) was undetectable (< 1 μg/g) and ovomucoid (OVM) was lowest in pouched meatballs, suggesting that processing temperature and uniform heat-treatment affect the detection of egg protein. Furthermore, egg protein contents were below 6 μg/g in the pouched meatballs and pasta made with egg-yolk, and OVA and OVM were not detected by Western blotting analysis with human IgE from patients' serum. On the other hand, processed egg proteins were detected with an ELISA kit using a surfactant and reductant in the extract buffer.