Soy milk is more effective than expensive laboratory chemicals at making medical diagnostic tests accurate.

Standard ELISA tests for IgM antibodies often fail because background noise makes the results impossible to read. Scientists tried using professional-grade reagents like bovine serum and fetal bovine serum, but they could not stop the interference. A simple carton of soy milk from the grocery store successfully blocked the sticky proteins that cause false readings. It solves a persistent technical failure in laboratory diagnostics using a cheap, shelf-stable plant product. This finding allows for high-precision antibody testing in low-resource areas where expensive lab chemicals are unavailable.