Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Standardization in allergen determination

  • General Paper
  • Published:
Accreditation and Quality Assurance Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

An overview is given of sensitization and allergic reaction on food, along with minimal eliciting doses for selected allergens (milk, egg, peanut), followed by the legislative situation in the European Community, the USA, Canada, Australia/New Zealand and Japan. The main focus of the paper discusses methods for food allergen determination (chromatography, DNA-based, antibody-based) and their limitations. Special emphasis is given on antibody-based systems, which are at the moment the most advanced and validated methods available. Examples are given of the current status of standardization for egg, milk, nuts, prolamins, glutelins and for clinical validated reference samples from the EU project EuroPrevall. Recommendations for ongoing activities are also included.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Taylor S (2006) The nature of food allergy. In: Koppelman SJ, Hefle SL (eds) Detecting allergens in food. CRC Press, Boca Raton and Woodhead Publishing Ltd, USA, England

  2. Janssen F (2006) Detecting wheat gluten in food. In: Koppelman SJ, Hefle SL (eds) Detecting allergens in food, CRC Press, Boca Raton and Woodhead Publishing Ltd

  3. Taylor SL, Hefle SL, Bindslev-Jensen C, Bock SA, Burks AW, Christie L, Hill DJ, Host A, Hourihane J’OB, Lack G, Metcalfe DD, Moneret-Vautrin DA, Vadas PA, Rance F, Skrypec DJ, Trautman TA, Malmneden Yman I, Zeiger RS (2002) Factors affecting the determination of threshold doses for allergenic foods: how much is too much? J Allergy Clin Immunol 109:24–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Crevel RWR, Ballmer-Weber BK, Holzhauser T, J’OB Hourihane, Knulst AC, Mackie AR, Timmermans F, Taylor SL (2008) Threshold for food allergens and their value to different stakeholders. Allergy 63:597–609

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Madsen CB, Hattersley S, Buck J, Gendel SM, Houben GF, J’OB Hourihane, Mackie A, Mills ENC, Norhede P, Taylor SL, Crevel RWR (2009) Approaches to risk assessment in food allergy: Report from a workshop developing a framework for assessing the risk from allergenic foods. Food Chem Toxicol 47:480–489

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Spanjersberg MQI, Kruizinga AG, Rennen MAJ, Houben GF (2007) Risk assessment and food allergy: the probabilistic model applied to allergens. Food Chem Toxicol 45:49–54

    Google Scholar 

  7. Authority European Food Safety (2004) Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Dietitic Products, Nutrition and Allergies on a request from the commission relating to the evaluation of allergenic food for labeling purposes. EFSA J 32:1–197

    Google Scholar 

  8. US Food and Drug Administration/CFSAN (2006) Report prepared by the Threshold Working Group. Approaches to establish thresholds for major food allergens and for gluten in food. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~acrobat/alrgn2.pdf. Accessed 31 Jan 2008

  9. Threshold Working Group (2008) Approaches to establish thresholds for major food allergens and for gluten in food. J Food Prot 71:1043–1088

    Google Scholar 

  10. Brooke-Taylor S (2007) Voluntary incidental trace allergen labelling (VITAL) procedure. http://www.allergenbureau.net

  11. Codex Alimentarius Commission (2008) Codex standard for foods for special dietary use for persons intolerant to gluten. Codex Stan 118-1979. http://www.codexalimentarius.net/download/standards/291/cxs_118e.pdf; revised in 2008

  12. Bolhaar STHP, van de Weg WE, van Ree R, Gonzales-Mancebo E, Zuidmeer L, Bruijnzeel-Koomen CAFM, Fernandez-Rivas M, Jansen J, Hoffmann-Sommergruber K, Knulst AC, Gilissen LJWJ (2005) In vivo assessment with prick-to-prick testing and double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge of allergenicity of apple cultivars. J Allergy Clin Immunol 116:1080–1086

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Bohle B, Zwölfer B, Heratizadeh A, Jahn-Schmid B, Antonia YD, Alter M, Keller W, Zuidmeer L, van Ree R, Werfel T, Ebner C (2006) Cooking birch pollen-related food: divergent consequences for IgE- and T cell-mediated reactivity in vitro and in vivo. J Allergy Clin Immunol 118:242–249

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Chung SY, Butts CL, Maleki SJ, Champagne ET (2003) Linking peanut allergenicity to the processes of maturation, curing, and roasting. J Agric Food Chem 51:4273–4277

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Wieser H, Koehler P (2008) The biochemical basis of celiac disease. Cereal Chem 85:1–13

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Mills ENC, Mackie AR (2008) The impact of processing on allergenicity of food. Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol 8:249–253

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Holzhauser T, Stephan O, Vieths S (2006) Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods for the detection of allergenic foods. In: Koppelman SJ, Hefle SL (eds) Detecting allergens in food. CRC Press, Boca Raton and Woodhead Publishing Ltd

  18. Iaconelli A, Fiorentini L, Bruschi S, Rossi F, Mingrone G, Piva G (2008) Absence of allergic reactions to egg white lysozyme additive in Grana Padano chesse. J Am Coll Nutr 27:326–331

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Mine Y, Zhang JW (2002) Comparative studies on antigenicity and allergenicity of native and denatured egg white proteins. J Agric Food Chem 50:2679–2683

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Valdes I, Garcia E, Mendez E, Llorente M (2003) Innovative approach to low-level gluten determination in foods using a novel sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay protocol. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 15:465–474

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Kahlenberg F, Sanchez D, Lachmann I, Tuckova L, Tlaskalova H, Mendez E (2006) Monoclonal antibody R5 for detection of putatively celiac-toxic gliadin peptides. Eur Food Res Technol 222:78–82

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Garcia E, Llorente M, Hernando A, Kieffer R, Weiser H, Mendez E (2005) Development of a general quantitative gliadin extraction procedure for unheated and heat-processed foods. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 17:529–539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Englebienne P, van Hoonacker A, Verhas M (2003) Surface plasmon resonance: principles. Methods and applications in biomedical sciences. Spectroscopy 17:255–273

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Jonsson H, Hellenäs KE (2003) Optimizing assay conditions in the detection of food allergens with Biacore’s SPR technology. Biacore J 2:16–18

    Google Scholar 

  25. Jäger L, Wüthrich B (1998) Nahrunsmittelallergien und–intoleranzen. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Ulm, p 138

    Google Scholar 

  26. van Wickern B, Simat T, Steinhart H (1997) HPLC-analysis of g-radiation-induced products of tryptophan in peptides and lysozyme. Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 205:446–451

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Monitoring and Quality Assurance in the Food Supply Chain, MoniQA (2009) http://www.moniqa.org/allergens

  28. Holzhauser T, Vieths S (1999) Quantitative sandwich ELISA for determination of traces of hazelnut (Corylus avellana) protein in complex food matrixes. J Agric Food Chem 47:4209–4218

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Holzhauser T, Vieths S (1999) Indirect competitive ELISA for determination of traces of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) protein in complex food matrices. J Agric Food Chem 47:603–611

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Roux KH, Teuber SS, Robotham JM, Sathe SK (2001) Detection and stability of the major almond allergen in foods. J Agric Food Chem 49:2131–2136

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Shewry PR, Tatham AS, Forde J, Kreis M, Miflin BJ (1986) The classification and nomenclature of wheat gluten protein: a reassessment. J Cereal Sci 4:97–106

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Osman AA, Uhlig HH, Valdes I, Amin M, Mendez E, Mothes T (2001) Monoclonal antibody recognizing a potential celiac toxic repetitive pentapeptide epitope in gliadins. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 13:1189–1193

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. van Eckert R (2002) The PWG gliadin, a new reference material. In: Stern M (ed) Proceedings of the 16th meeting of the WGPAT, Nov 2001, Sitges, Spain. Verl. Wissenschaftliche Scripten, Zwickau, p 25–27

  34. Molberg O, Solheim FN, Jensen T, Lundib KEA, Arentz-Hansen H, Anderson OD, Uhlen AK, Sollid LM (2003) Intestinal T-cell responses to high-molecular weight glutenins in celiac disease. Gastroenterology 125:337–344

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Ciclitira PJ, Dewar DH, Ellis HJ, Engel W, Johnson M, Wieser H (2005) Clinical toxicity of HMW glutenin subunits of wheat to patients with coeliac disease. In: Stern M (ed) Proceedings of the 19th meeting of the WGPAT, Oct 2004, Prag, Czech Republic. Verl. Wissenschaftliche Scripten, Zwickau, p 147–149

  36. Wieser H, Seilmeier W (2003) Determination of gliadin and gluten in wheat starch by means of alcohol extraction and gel permeation chromatography. In: Stern M (ed) Proceedings of the 17th meeting of the WGPAT, Oct 2002, London, UK. Verl. Wissenschaftliche Scripten, Zwickau, p 53–57

Download references

Acknowledgments

Our special thanks are due to Clare Mills, who was the altruistic moving spirit of the whole project EuroPrevall. Furthermore, we would like to thank Christian Gößwein and Tina Katzenmeier for their technical support and Carol Donnelly from Glasgow for her critical reading and valuable comments on the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. R-Biopharm AG, An der neuen Bergstr. 17, 64297, Darmstadt, Germany

    Markus Lacorn & Ulrike Immer

Authors
  1. Markus Lacorn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ulrike Immer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Markus Lacorn.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lacorn, M., Immer, U. Standardization in allergen determination. Accred Qual Assur 15, 207–216 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-009-0592-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-009-0592-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation