Evaluation of receptor based analytical assays for allergen detection revealed their lack of robustness as function of food processing which could be attributed to the chemical changes in proteis, affecting the molecular recognition with the receptor used. Alternative analytical approaches were evaluated. The use of MALDI-TOF-MS enabled the qualitative detection of stable peptides present in the allergenic commodities evaluated (whey proteins, soy and hazelnut). Alternatively, it was shown that the use of antibodies towards chemically modified soy proteins improved assay robustness. The use of antibodies towards a hazelnut protein which proved to be remarkably stable upon processing further improved the robustness of the receptor based analytical methodology, but still about 50 % of the present proteins remained undetected in a cookie matrix.In view of the presented results, reflections will be made if indeed the development of reliable analytical approaches for quantitative allergen detection are realistic or not.

Analysis to support food allergen risk management: Which way to go?

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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