BioDetection Systems’ DR CALUX^® assay

BDS'  novel DR CALUX^® technology is being used as a rapid, sensitive and cost effective tool for screening food and feed ingredients for dioxin and dioxin-like compounds. For more information about our service click here.

Traditional instrumental techniques such as GCMS and HRGCMS can only analyse one sample at a time, making them comparably slow and expensive and not suitable for screening large numbers of samples rapidly. This makes it difficult to obtain a good understanding of the degree and extent of dioxin and dioxin-like compound levels in food chains and accordingly to manage business risk effectively.

In contrast, BDS’ DR CALUX^® technique is very rapid, extremely sensitive and much more cost effective , being 1/10 to 1/5 of the cost of traditional techniques. For more information about the properties click here.

From 1 July 2002, the European Union set maximum limit values  for dioxins in food and feed.  The Directives controlling implementation of this legislation permit the use of bioassays for dioxins monitoring.  The performance criteria for bioassays contained the within the Directives are based on BDS' DR CALUX^® bioassay and as far as we know, BDS' is the only bioassay to meet these criteria.  The assay is therefore acceptable for use within EU-wide legislation.  No other bioassay can make these claims.

The technique is undertaken on 96-well plates, which makes it possible for large numbers of samples to be analysed simultaneously.  Cells are cultured in the laboratory and transferred to the 96-well plates.  Feed, feed ingredients or food samples are extracted with a solvent and combined with the cells on the 96-well plates.  After a short time (6 – 24 hours), the light produced by the cells is detected by  a luminometer. For more information about the procedure click here.