Patent ID: 7344848

Claim:
A method for determining adequacy of heat processing of a cooked mammalian meat sample using indirect ELISA, said method comprising the steps of: a) homogenizing said cooked mammalian meat sample to create an extract containing soluble heat-treated proteins; b) coating a solid surface with said extract; c) contacting said coated extract with a monoclonal antibody, wherein said monoclonal antibody is 2F8 produced by a hybridoma deposited as ATCC No. HB-12155 and capable of binding a heat-degraded or a heat-denatured saline-soluble heat-treated protein so that at least some of said monoclonal antibody binds to said coated extract; d) contacting said bound monoclonal antibody with a second antibody conjugated to an enzyme, said second antibody specifically binding to said monoclonal antibody; e) contacting said enzyme with a substrate so that an observable signal is generated; f) detecting said signal; and g) comparing said signal to a standard binding curve of indirect ELISA responses for said monoclonal antibody to soluble heat-treated protein extracts from samples of said mammalian meat cooked to different end-point cooking temperatures; wherein said cooked mammalian meat sample is adequately heat processed if said signal indicates cooking to an adequate end-point temperature.