Monitoring dibutyl phthalate contamination in milk and milk products

Monitoring dibutyl phthalate contamination in milk and milk products

Basic information of dibutyl phthalate and monitoring of dibutyl phthalate contamination

Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) is an organic compound that is commonly used as a plasticizer because of its low toxicity and wide liquid range. With the chemical formula C6H4(CO2C4H9)2, it is a colorless oil, although commercial samples are often yellow. However, since DBP is also a putative endocrine disruptor, the use of this substance in cosmetics, including nail polishes, is banned in the European Union since 1976. And the use of DBP has been restricted in the European Union for use in children's toys since 1999. In the US, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) is one of the six phthalic acid esters found on the Priority Pollutant List, which consists of pollutants regulated by the EPA.

Monitoring dibutyl phthalate contamination with ELISA 

The conventional method for dibutyl phthalate monitoring is GC-MS, which is time-consuming and high-cost. Thus the detection of DBP can only be carried out in certain labs such as testing centers of big companies or third-party labs. In order to meet the regulatory requirement, small manufacturers such as food factories, plastic factories, etc shall also perform the DBP testing. In busy seasons, testing centers run GC-MS may not finish the testing on time. There are reports on running the analysis of DBP with immunoassays, however, commercial ELISA kits were available just quite recently.

The Ringbio dibutyl phthalate DBP ELISA kit is based on the competitive immunosorbent assay in which a DBP specific monoclonal antibody is used to capture the DBP in samples, which can then produce a highly specific and accurate result. The detection limit meets the regulation requirement. According to our internal validation, this DBP ELISA kit can be applied in various milk and milk powder samples, such as dairy milk, camel milk, goat milk, sheep milk as well as related milk powder. Now it has been used quite frequently in local dairy factories for their routine analysis.

This DBP ELISA kit has a product code E6009 with a box of 96tests, if you are interested, please feel free to contact us. Besides, Ringbio also provides another environmental hormone ELISA kit - NPE (nonylphenol polyoxyethylene ether) ELISA Kit.