Allergic persons need to know whether the foodstuffs they buy contain allergens and they have to rely on the thruthfulness of labels on packaged food. Immunochemistry based tests are definitely the most widely applied tool in routine as well as research laboratories for the determination of food allergens. Recently, mass spectrometry based techniques for food allergen detection have gained popularity. Unfortunately, comparability of testing results produced by different assays is not always ensured. There is a global need for better harmonisation of allergen testing methods. Use of reference materials (RMs) for calibration and validation of methods can mitigate the problem. The scarcity of well characterised pure allergens, the lack of validated methods, and the fate of the allergen during preparation of an incurred matrix RM are serious hurdles slowing down their development.

Harmonisation efforts are needed for the effective testing for low level presence of food allergens

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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