Importance of Allergen Testing in the Development of Risk Management Strategies, Policies and Guidelines for Responding to Incidence of Undeclared Food Allergens

Samuel Benrejeb, John Salminen, Bernard Fortier, Michael Abbott

Bureau of Chemical Safety - Food Directorate - Sir Frederick Banting Research Centre, Health Canada - Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0L2 (Canada).

Allergen testing plays an important role in the development of risk management strategies for food allergens. Prior to the development of today's sensitive ELISA based methods, only large scale contamination of allergens could be detected. These new methods gave regulators the ability to detect very low levels of food allergens in other foods. This in turn has led to the development of information about thresholds, or at least the identification of levels that have been responsible for allergic reactions up to and including anaphylaxis.

In any incident of undeclared allergen in a food, the amount of undeclared allergen present is a key piece of information which is used, along with other information particular to the incident in question, to decide the appropriate response. Higher levels are invariably linked with more severe reactions and require stronger response than very low levels.

This presentation will discuss the application of allergen testing to the development of regulations, policies, guidelines and risk management strategies for dealing with incidence of undeclared allergens in food.