14 ADVERTORIAL


DI Elisabeth Hammer Product Manager, Romer Labs Division Holding GmbH elisabeth.hammer@romerlabs.com


Allergen management:


Challenges and solutions


Food allergy, an immune response to proteins present in food that the body mistakenly believes are harmful, is an important health problem of increasing concern in developed countries. Symptoms can include, for example, swelling of lips, tongue and eyelids, itching, asthma, light-headedness, nausea, gastroenteritis, hives and dermatitis, and in worst case, it can lead to anaphylactic shock and possible subsequent death. The number of people believed to be suffering from a food allergy is increasing.


It is estimated that 25 per cent of the population think they have an allergic reaction to a certain food, however, in fact only five to eight per cent of children and two to three per cent of adults have a food allergy. Another clinical pattern in this subject area is Coeliac Disease – an undesirable autoimmune reaction towards gliadin in wheat or the prolamin fraction of other cereals. Symptoms are divers and the only treatment option up to now is a gluten free diet. To protect consumers it became mandatory


in many countries around the world to label the presence of certain food allergens in packaged food. To date, there are 13 food categories and one chemical that are included in the labelling directives of the European Union. This list, published in the Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and lastly amended in the Commission Directive 2007/68/EC, includes cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, nuts, celery, mustard, sesame seeds, lupin and molluscs. For the products listed there are no thresholds mentioned except for sulphur dioxide and sulphite. In addition, the European Union published Commission Regulation (EC) No 41/2009 concerning the composition and


New Food Volume 14, Issue 5, 2011


labelling of foodstuffs suitable for people intolerant to gluten where a threshold of 20 mg/kg gluten is listed according to Codex Alimentarius Standard. Food allergens are common food


components and used in many recipes and formulations. They are often added as a single ingredient or included as part of a premixed ingredient. In this case, manufacturers are aware of the presence of an allergen and can react accordingly by labelling it in the ingredient list. However, more problematic are cross


contaminations of food with allergens. For example, this can happen during storage of ingredients when allergen-containing supplies are located alongside those without. Also, during food production itself, there are several ways of transferring traces of an allergen to another product, e.g. when sharing utensils for mixing or weighing ingredients or when using an inadequately cleaned production line or parts of equipment. Inadequate cleaning can also cause so called carry-over, transmitting allergens via cleaning rinses or cleaning procedures. Even production staff can cross contaminate food with their dirty clothing. At any stage of production, it can happen that in-process materials or finished products are used as re-work to minimise waste. Great care has to be taken with such practices to ensure correct separation and re-use of these materials.


Figure 1Managing food allergens in the production facility using AgraStrip® allergen test strips


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15