Backing sought for study of processes to cut allergens
The research and development company Leatherhead Food International (LFI) is looking for collaborators for a proposed study into how various processing methods could be used to cut the allergenicity of ingredients such as peanuts.
LFI's Dr Clive Meredith, who is leading the attempt to set up the project, said that the work would focus on: thermal processing; simple refining methods including mechanical processes; and proteolytic methods. Proteolysis, which uses enzymes to degrade proteins to below the size that causes allergic reactions, is used now for the production of hypoallergenic milk, said Meredith.
The plan is to look at combining several techniques to make products, said Meredith. The £200,000 project would focus on established processes, rather than potentially promising but new or otherwise problematical approaches such as pressure processing, said Meredith, who works in LFI's molecular science division.
He said that there seemed to have been no concerted research into the subject in Europe up to now.
Among the issues to be studied would be factors such as why the allergenicity of peanuts rises when they are roasted whereas that of hazelnuts falls, said Meredith. Peanuts that are boiled, as is common in China, have a low susceptibility to allergenicity, he said. “We would seek out the science because there are some contradictions,” he said.
LFI now needs a mix of perhaps 10 firms - ingredients suppliers, processors, product manufacturers and so on - to join the project, paying £15-20,000 each. Talks with potential collaborators needed to begin soon, said Meredith: “We would really like to start this project at the beginning of 2007.”
Meanwhile, Reading Scientific Services said that it had developed a DNA-based test for fish allergens in about 50 species of fish. It claimed that the development made it the first laboratory in the UK to have reliable methods of detecting trace amounts of all 12 of the allergens that must be declared on food labels in the EU.
