Reactions to peanut allergens can be severe, and peanut allergens are resistant to several types of processing. Fermented foods are popular around the world and contain probiotics, enzymes, and other nutrients that can be beneficial to human health. Rhizopus oryzae is considered safe for human consumption and it is commonly used in the preparation of numerous foods. Peanut fermentation may be a useful processing method to generate novel foods with reduced allergen content that also contain microbial metabolites for improved human health. A commercial source of R. oryzae was used to characterize the effects of fungal fermentation on peanut allergens. SDS-PAGE analysis of soluble protein extracted from fermented peanuts indicated a clear reduction in numerous peanut proteins after 16 hours of fermentation. Mass-spectrometry confirmed the presence of peanut allergen peptides and an increased observance of R. oryzae proteins as fermentation progressed. Immunoblot and ELISA with rabbit anti-Ara h 1 and chicken anti-peanut polyclonal antibodies indicated a strong reduction in intensity of full-length Ara h 1 and Ara h 3 after eight hours. However, ELISA of soluble fermented peanut protein with peanut allergic IgE volunteer samples indicated only marginally reduced (10-40%) allergen binding even after 48 hours. The analysis presented here indicates that fermentation of peanut protein with R. oryzae can reduce allergen content, but not to an extent that it is suitable for those with peanut allergy.

Immunological characterization of peanut flour fermented with Rhizopus oryzae

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