Food Allergens and Processing: A Review of Recent Results

Food allergens are becoming an increasingly serious problem for consumers that are sensitive to them. The presence of specific substances in processing plants also affects regulations regarding food packaging. The objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of recent efforts (positive and negative) to deallergize processed foods. The existing literature and our own research results are reviewed and compared, and future directions are assessed. Recent research in food processing shows that some methods can influence allergenicity and reduce allergic reactions in consumers. The paper reviews successful and unsuccessful attempts to reduce allergenicity through food processing using thermal treatment, enzymatic reactions, fermentation, high-pressure treatment (HPT), ionization, ultraviolet irradiation, polymerization of proteins, ultrafiltration, and oxidation. Extra attention is given to deactivation trials of carrot, celery, and apple juices and the important allergens, Dau c 1, Api g 1, and Mal d 1, these juices contain. The most promising deallergization method is processing with proteolytic enzymes together with physical processing methods (heating or high pressure). Recently, methods based on oxidative reactions of fruit/vegetable juices were described that can also be enhanced by HPT.