en Food Science Food Science پژوهشي Research <div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background and Objectives: </strong>Melamine is an organic nitrogen used as an adulterant to increase nitrogen and protein contents in milks. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay has verified as a good alternative for rapid screening of melamine and other food additives instead of the laborious chromatography techniques.<br> <strong>Materials and Methods: </strong>In the present study, MaxSignal enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay&nbsp; kit was used to screen melamine in 30 samples, including milks, infant formulas, chocolates, tea whiteners and pet foods. The kit was based on a competitive colorimetric enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.<br> <strong>Results: </strong>Melamine was detected in the range of 0.05&ndash;0.69 ppm in infant formula/milk powder samples and 0.001&ndash;0.042 ppm in liquid milk samples, which were under the set limits of Codex Alimentarius, 2012. Codex&nbsp;Alimentarius Commission adopted a&nbsp;maximum melamine&nbsp;level of 1 ppm for powdered infant formulas and of 2.5 ppm for other foods and animal foods. The commission has now set a&nbsp;maximum limit of&nbsp;0.15 ppm for&nbsp;melamine&nbsp;in liquid&nbsp;milks. Further protein analyses of milk and infant formula samples were also carried out to verify the presence of melamine.<br> <strong>Conclusions: </strong>It has been seen that enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay could&nbsp; effectively be used as a screening tool for detecting melamine in a wide range of food samples. Whereas, complementary techniques such as high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry can be adopted as verification methods for regulatory compliance.</div> Melamine, ELISA, Antibody, Kjeldahl method, HPLC, GC/MS 29 36 http://nfsr.sbmu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-964-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Salman Saeed salmaansaeed@gmail.com 10031947532846005386 10031947532846005386 No Food & Biotechnology Research Center, Pakistan Council of Scientific Industrial Research Centre, Laboratories Complex, Lahore, Pakistan Abdul Ahid Rashid ch.abdulahid@gmail.com 10031947532846005385 10031947532846005385 Yes Food & Biotechnology Research Center, Pakistan Council of Scientific Industrial Research Centre, Laboratories Complex, Lahore, Pakistan Youmna Ali Rizvi youmnarizvi@hotmail.com 10031947532846005387 10031947532846005387 No Department of Biological Sciences, Forman Christian College (A Chartered University) Lahore, Pakistan Khurram Shehzad khurrampcsir74@yahoo.com 10031947532846005388 10031947532846005388 No Food & Biotechnology Research Center, Pakistan Council of Scientific Industrial Research Centre, Laboratories Complex, Lahore, Pakistan Shaista Nawaz snpcsir1@hotmail.com 10031947532846005389 10031947532846005389 No Food & Biotechnology Research Center, Pakistan Council of Scientific Industrial Research Centre, Laboratories Complex, Lahore, Pakistan Yasir Muhammad ysaleem73@hotmail.com 10031947532846005390 10031947532846005390 No Food & Biotechnology Research Center, Pakistan Council of Scientific Industrial Research Centre, Laboratories Complex, Lahore, Pakistan