Authentication of food allergens

Abstract

Pure allergen batches are required for precise personalized diagnosis of food allergies. Furthermore, they can be used to develop sensitive allergen detection assays in foods and are valuable tools to develop novel immunotherapies. However, these reagents have to be well characterized and have to meet certain quality criteria. Within the EU-Project EuroPrevall the concept of an allergen library comprising the most important food allergens from animal and plant derived foods was developed together with a catalogue of physicochemical and immunological properties, that had to be investigated. In close cooperation partners from academia and biotech industry applied well established lab techniques as well as novel high throughput assays to analyze the most important features of the final protein batches. It is expected that this proof of concept will contribute to improved authentication of allergens for both, routine application in allergy diagnosis and treatment and risk assessment in food production.

Keywords

• food allergens
• IgE
• diagnosis