Chen S, Yang C, Downs M. Targeted mass spectrometry quantification of total soy protein residues from commercially processed ingredients for food allergen management. J Proteomics. 2021 Mar 20:104194. doi: 10.1016/j.jprot.2021.104194. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33757881.
Keywords:
Soybean; food allergen; quantification; LC-MS/MS; mass spectrometry
Lab head: Melanie Downs Submitter: Shimin Chen
Soybean is one of the most commonly allergenic foods in the U.S., and the ubiquity and variety of commercial soy ingredients in the food industry make it a challenging allergen to avoid. The processing methods used to produce soy-derived ingredients result in protein modifications that often substantially impact detection and quantification with commonly used antibody-based methods. This study aimed to develop a mass spectrometry (MS)-based method capable of quantifying commercially processed soy ingredients in food matrices. A quantification strategy using external standards with internal calibrants was developed and evaluated, resulting in the ultimate use of a matrix-independent standard curve of non-roasted soy flour with milk proteins as carrier proteins. The method performance was evaluated by quantifying six soy-derived ingredients in incurred food matrices. Out of the twelve ingredient-matrix combinations with 10 ppm incurred total soy protein, eight had maximum recoveries between 60-120%. Compared with three commercial ELISA kits, the MS method showed a substantial advantage in quantifying the highly processed soy proteins in food matrices.
The raw data and search results for the spectrum library used with the Skyline document are available on PRIDE with the ProteomeXchange accession PXD008699.