ABSTRACT
Shellfish is an important source of food and plays a significant role in human nutrition and health. The last decade has witnessed an increase in the worldwide consumption of various seafood products mainly due to changed perceptions of dietary requirements as a result of an increase in awareness of the health benefits of seafood. This chapter focuses on the classification of shellfish, structural and immunological properties of major and minor shellfish allergens. It also focuses on current advances in diagnostic strategies, novel immunological and chemical methods of allergen detection in food and recent advances in the management of occupational allergy to shellfish. One of the important features of major shellfish allergens is the phenomena of IgE antibody cross-reactivity. Tropomyosin is a highly conserved protein among various invertebrate species and demonstrates a high amino acid sequence identity. Recombinant technology has brought tremendous advances to the field of allergen characterization, diagnostics and vaccine development.
