Improving allergenicity risk assessment of novel foods

Abstract

Both protein consumption and the world’s population are increasing, which leads to an urgent demand for new sustainable food protein sources. However, introduction of novel protein sources is not without risk. Novel protein sources may induce new food sensitizations and allergies and/or can elicit cross-reactive allergies in already allergic individuals. It is therefore pivotal that we can accurately assess and predict the allergenicity of novel proteins. Predictive methods that can measure the allergenicity accurately can be developed more effectively when it is agreed upon which measure should be used to characterize allergenicity. Regulators should make this decision to direct the development of predictive test methods. Several parameters have been proposed in the past that can be used to assess and express allergenicity and regulate upon. In this thesis, we evaluated the sensitizing potency of a protein, that we think has the highest potential to accurately characterize the allergenicity of novel food proteins. Additionally, we provided a framework which includes multiple steps that can be followed to allow regulators to establish acceptance or rejection criteria for novel food proteins. We also investigated if certain methods have the potential to predict the allergenicity of proteins and how these may be improved. The gene expression of blood cells exposed to proteins can potentially be used in this regard. However, we also found that digestion and uptake of proteins can affect the allergenicity of proteins. This should be taken into account when developing the much needed methods that can assess allergenicity.