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Imprint
Detection of Allergens in food: a comparative study on DNA-analytical and immunological methods
Project
Project code: BfR-LMS-08-1322-280
Contract period: 01.02.2007
- 31.12.2008
Purpose of research: Applied research
As state of November, 25th, 2005, allergens have to be declared all over the European Un-ion (Directive 2000/13/EG OJ L109, 6.5. 2000). The list of ingredients to be labelled com-prises soybean, peanut and many other food components of animal or plant origin. There is no threshold defined so that low traces of the allergenic commodity are sufficient to require declaration. The control of the mandatory labelling is a new challenge for food control. At present the detection methods are based on direct proof of the protein by ELISA or other immunological techniques or by DNA-analytical tools like PCR (Polymerase chain reaction). In this context a discussed issue is the poor knowledge about the relation between protein content and genomic copies as analysed by PCR based methods. The aim of this project is a comparative investigation on PCR-based and immunological detection methods for aller-gens in food with the example of sesame and soybean (opitional peanut). In particular the question shall be clearified if both methods span the range of thresholds between 1-10 ppm under discussion and if they function well analysing samples containing only trace amounts of the analyte (like e.g. soybean lecithine in sweets and chocolate or processed products). Soybean (as well as peanut) play a role as ?hidden? allergen of pronounced heat stability in many products and hence display a significant health risk for the consumer.
Section overview
Subjects
- Biotechnology
- Toxicology
