Authors: Patricia SchubertUllrich Judith Rudolf Parisa Ansari Brigitte Galler Manuela Führer Alexandra Molinelli Sabine Baumgartner
Publish Date: 2009/03/24
Volume: 395, Issue: 1, Pages: 69-81
Abstract
Food allergies have become an important health issue especially in industrialized countries Undeclared allergenic ingredients or the presence of “hidden” allergens because of contamination during the food production process pose great health risks to sensitised individuals The EU directive for food labelling lists allergenic foods that have to be declared on food products by the manufacturers The list includes glutencontaining cereals crustaceans eggs fish peanuts soybeans milk various nuts eg almond hazelnut and walnut etc celery mustard sesame seeds lupin and molluscs Reliable methods for detection and quantification of food allergens are needed that can be applied in a fast and easytouse manner are portable and need only limited technical equipment This review focuses on the latest developments in food allergen analysis with special emphasis on fast immunoanalytical methods such as rapid enzymelinked immunosorbent assays ELISA lateralflow immunochromatographic assays LFA and dipstick tests Emerging technologies such as immunochemical microarrays and biosensors are also discussed and their application to food allergen analysis is reviewed Finally a comprehensive overview of rapid immunochemical test kits that are currently available commercially is given in tabular formThe authors thank the Christian Doppler Research Association and RomerLabs for funding the Christian Doppler PilotLaboratory “Rapid Test Systems for Allergenic Food Contaminants” The authors also want to thank the Lower Austrian Government for their financial support
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