News

Review of allergen testing techniques published free online

Publish date:28 July 2009

Food Allergy

The prevalence of food allergy appears to be increasing with about 10 deaths (and potentially many more near misses) every year in the UK in food allergy related incidents. The number of food recalls resulting from labelling problems also appears to be increasing. Thus there are significant problems for both food allergic consumers and the food industry. Those who represent food allergy sufferers and the food industry are working hard, along with regulators and research scientists to address the problems. Analysis for allergens is a rapidly evolving field and, undertaken as part of our foresight activities this review of the recent literature indicates that ELISA and DNA techniques dominate laboratory testing for allergens. ELISA kits are available for most but not all major allergens but quantification can be problematic. DNA based methods have been criticised because they do not target allergenic proteins and data handling practices remain to be standardised. Published peer reviewed independent validation studies for either technique are lacking for all but a few allergens. Nevertheless, each of these approaches compliments the other in terms of target analytes and both applications have generated substantially more publications than any other techniques. This review has also elicited areas of good practice and common problems that must be addressed when evaluating and validating kits and methods. The review has been published as a peer reviewed scientific paper: M J Walker, P Colwell, S Elahi, K Gray and I Lumley, 2008, Food Allergen Detection: A Literature Review 2004 - 2007, J Assoc Public Analysts (JAPA) (Online) 36, 1-18 available at http://www.apajournal.org.uk/JAPA_Vol_36_pg_1-18/japa_vol_36_pg_1-18.html