Fluorometric Analysis of Alkaline Phosphatase in Fluid Dairy Products

A new quantitative assay has been developed for measuring residual alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in a wide variety of dairy products including whole milk, low fat and skim milks, chocolate milk, and creams. ALP in the test sample hydrolyzes a nonfluorescent substrate, Fluorophos^R, to a highly fluorescent product. Product formation is monitored continuously during a short incubation period and enzyme activity is calculated from the rate of fluorescence increase. Total test time is 3 min. Reaction rates are linear up to 0.5% raw milk (equivalent to 5 μg phenol/ml/15 min) with a detection limit of 0.006% raw milk. Within and between run precision of the fluorometric method was assessed by repeated analysis of a pasteurized milk sample containing added mixed herd raw milk. The within run (N=10) mean was 190.4 mU/L, standard deviation (SD) 3.2, and a coefficient of variance (CV) of 1.7%. The procedure provides a rapid, sensitive, precise, and easy-to-use ALP assay, applicable to a wide variety of dairy products.