Accidental allergic reactions to food in adolescents and adults: An overview of the factors involved and implications for prevention

Accidental allergic reactions to food are one of the major problems in adult patients diagnosed with food allergy. Such reactions occur frequently, are often severe and are associated with higher medical and non-medical costs. The aim of this Perspective is to provide insight into the different factors involved in the occurrence of accidental...

Updated population minimal eliciting dose distributions for use in risk assessment of 14 priority food allergens

Food allergy and allergen management are important global public health issues. In 2011, the first iteration of our allergen threshold database (ATDB) was established based on individual NOAELs and LOAELs from oral food challenge in roughly 1750 allergic individuals. Population minimal eliciting dose (EDp) distributions based on this dataset...

COST Action 'ImpARAS': What have we learnt to improve food allergy risk assessment. A summary of a 4 year networking consortium

The growing world population and increased pressure on agricultural resources are driving a shortage of dietary protein sources. As a result, industry is developing more sustainable novel food protein sources such as insects, algae and duckweed and using new processing techniques. Consumer exposure to these novel or processed proteins, could...

Risk of shared equipment in restaurants for consumers with peanut allergy: a simulation for preparing Asian foods: A simulation for preparing Asian foods

Allergic reactions to meals consumed outside the home are common and can be severe and sometimes fatal. Objective. To quantify the risk reduction potentially achieved by increasing an individual’s threshold sensitivity to peanut (such as by means of immunotherapy) in scenarios of peanut exposure through shared kitchen materials in a restaurant...

The relevance of a digestibility evaluation in the allergenicity risk assessment of novel proteins. Opinion of a joint initiative of COST action ImpARAS and COST action INFOGEST

The current allergenicity assessment of novel proteins is based on the EFSA GMO guidance. Recently, EFSA launched a new guidance document on allergenicity assessment of GM plants (2017). This document describes, amongst other topics, the new scientific and regulatory developments on in vitro protein digestibility tests. The EFSA GMO Panel stated...

Accidental food allergy reactions: Products and undeclared ingredients

Background: Accidental allergic reactions to food are frequent and can be severe and even fatal. Objective: We sought to analyze the culprit food products and levels of unexpected allergens in accidental reactions. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted in adults (n = 157) with a physician-confirmed diagnosis of food allergy. During a...

Sensitization to Cor a 9 or Cor a 14 has a strong impact on the distribution of thresholds to hazelnut

[No abstract available] Chemicals / CAS immunoglobulin E, 37341-29-0; Allergens; Antigens, Plant; Cor a 14 allergen, hazelnut; Cor a 9 protein, hazelnut; Immunoglobulin E; Plant Proteins.

Threshold Dose Distribution in Walnut Allergy

Background In food allergy, eliciting doses (EDs) of foods on a population level can improve risk management and labeling strategies for the food industry and regulatory authorities. Previously, data available for walnut were unsuitable to determine EDs. Objective The objective of this study was to determine EDs for walnut allergic adults and to...

Understanding food allergen thresholds requires careful analysis of the available clinical data

Frequentie en oorzaak van onverwachte allergische reacties op voedsel [Frequency and cause of unexpected allergic reactions to food]

Unexpected reactions occur in patients with food allergy, but frequency data are scare. This prospective study investigates the frequency, severity and causes of unexpected allergic reactions to food in adults with a doctor's diagnosed food allergy. Participants complete an online questionnaire after every unexpected reaction and send in the...

Double-blind placebo-controlled food challenges in children with alleged cow's milk allergy: Prevention of unnecessary elimination diets and determination of eliciting doses

Background: Children with cow's milk allergy (CMA) need a cow's milk protein (CMP) free diet to prevent allergic reactions. For this, reliable allergy-information on the label of food products is essential to avoid products containing the allergen. On the other hand, both overzealous labeling and misdiagnosis that result in unnecessary...

Unexpected allergic reactions to food, a prospective study

Unexpected reactions occur in patients with food allergy, but frequency data are scare. This prospective study investigates the frequency, severity and causes of unexpected allergic reactions to food in adults with a doctor's diagnosed food allergy. Participants complete an online questionnaire after every unexpected reaction and send in the...

Risk assessment and food allergy: The probabilistic model applied to allergens

In order to assess the risk of unintended exposure to food allergens, traditional deterministic risk assessment is usually applied, leading to inconsequential conclusions as 'an allergic reaction cannot be excluded'. TNO therefore developed a quantitative risk assessment model for allergens based on probabilistic techniques resulting in a more...

Does skin prick test reactivity to purified allergens correlate with clinical severity of peanut allergy?

Background: Recognition of specific peanut allergens or the diversity of IgE binding to peanut allergens may play a role in the elicitation of severe allergic reactions. Objective: To investigate whether sensitization to individual allergens Ara h 1, Ara h 2, Ara h 3 and Ara h 6 is correlated with clinical severity. Methods: The reactivity of...

Workshop overview: Approaches to the assessment of the allergenic potential of food from genetically modified crops

There is a need to assess the safety of foods deriving from genetically modified (GM) crops, including the allergenic potential of novel gene products. Presently, there is no single in vitro or in vivo model that has been validated for the identification or characterization of potential food allergens. Instead, the evaluation focuses on risk...

Approaches to induce and elicit respiratory allergy: Impact of route and intensity of exposure

Although a number of test protocols have been developed to predict respiratory allergenic potential, none of these are widely applied or fully accepted. However, given the serious health problems caused by respiratory allergy and the ever-increasing stream of new chemicals into workplaces, early identification of chemical respiratory allergens...

Humoral and cellular immune responses in different rat strains on oral exposure to ovalbumin

No adequate enteral sensitization models are available to study food allergy and allergenicity of food proteins. Using a previously described oral sensitization protocol to sensitize Brown Norway rats (BN) to food proteins, the influence of genetically-based strain-specific characteristics of the immune system on the outcome of oral...