ABSTRACT
Food allergies represent an important medical condition that ranges in severity from mild skin and intestinal irritation to anaphylactic shock that can result in death. Food allergies may be present in up to 2% of adults and 8% of children, with surveyed results of perceived allergic reactions being as high as 22% for the population.1 The vast majority of foods allergens are proteins and, as a whole, are represented by more than 1500 reported amino acid sequences, with more sequences being characterized for their allergenicity every year.2 The eight most commonly reported allergic reactions are to peanuts, tree nuts, cows’ milk, hens’ eggs, fish, Crustacea, wheat, and soybeans.3 Moreover, adverse reactions to plant-derived foods are very common in birch pollen allergic subjects.4 Typical birch pollen-related food allergies include apple, stone fruit such as peach, apricot and cherry, hazelnut, carrot, celery, and soybeans. Although the majority of observed reactions to those foods are mild (oral allergy syndrome), systemic reactions have been observed, in particular to celery, carrot, and soybean.5 Of concern to the public and companies supplying biotechnology food proteins is the transfer of allergens or proteins similar to
8.1 Prevalence of Food Allergy and Characteristics of Food Allergens ............209 8.2 Current Allergy Assessment Process ........................................................... 211
8.2.1 Bioinformatics Searches ................................................................... 211 8.2.2 In Vitro Digestibility Assays ............................................................. 213 8.2.3 IgE-Binding Methods for Allergy Assessment ................................. 214
8.3 Potential New Methods for Allergy Assessment .......................................... 215 8.3.1 Animal Models ................................................................................. 215 8.3.2 In Vitro Basophil Activation Assays ................................................. 216
8.4 Conclusions ................................................................................................... 218 References .............................................................................................................. 219
allergens to foods where they are not normally found, the increase in endogenous allergen content of already allergenic foods, and the emergence of novel proteins as new allergens with the ability to both sensitize and elicit allergic reactions in susceptible individuals.
