About this Research Topic
Food allergy (FA) is defined as an adverse reaction that occurs when the immune system is repeatedly exposed to and recognizes certain food allergens. The most common allergenic foods (“The Big Eight”) are milk, eggs, wheat, soybean, peanuts, shellfish, fish, and tree nuts. Allergic reactions can cause multiple clinical symptoms, ranging from swelling, rash, breath difficulty, itchiness, and even to anaphylaxis. Furthermore, according to current epidemiological data, the frequency of FA is increasing in this decade, thus affecting a substantial proportion of the global population, with prevalence of 10% in Australia, 8% in US, 6% in Europe, and 5.3% in Korea. In general, FA has become a serious food safety issue, leading to significant health consequences and widespread social concern around the world.
To date, there are still no cure for individuals suffering from food allergy. The most common preventive or corrective approaches rely on strict allergen avoidance or on emergency medication. In this sense, reducing allergenicity of foods is an effective way to avoid allergic responses, thus contributing to minimize the stress imposed to allergic individuals and to society/economy in general. So far, the use of novel food processing technologies, as well as commonly used methods, such as heat treatment, biological enzymatic hydrolysis, ultra-high static pressure, glycosylation, and fermentation have been attempted to mitigate the presence of allergens in various foods. However, the effects of such technologies on food allergenicity are still not fully known, meaning that they should be looked with special attention aiming at reducing protein allergenicity. It is an urgent demand of dairy and other food industries to explore an efficient and safe method to reduce allergenicity of allergen protein. Therefore, this research topic aims at filling the gap regarding the knowledge on how to reduce allergenicity of food protein in various products that contains most common allergenic foods. Moreover, this research topic could improve the body of knowledge in the field of food allergy, advancing new pathways for the development of hypoallergenic foods.
The scope of the topic to be considered for inclusion includes, but is not limited to:
● The isolation, characterization and rapid detection technologies of food allergens in raw food materials and processed food products,
● The novel methodologies being used to reduce the allergenicity of food allergens, such as nanotechnology, microwave technology, and molecular biological strategies,
● Methods to evaluate the efficacy of processing treatments on food allergenicity mitigation,
● The alteration of food protein functionality during the process of reducing the allergenicity,
● The relationship of food allergy and gastrointestinal digestion and absorption,
● Food allergy management and prevention strategies in food production and consumption.
To date, there are still no cure for individuals suffering from food allergy. The most common preventive or corrective approaches rely on strict allergen avoidance or on emergency medication. In this sense, reducing allergenicity of foods is an effective way to avoid allergic responses, thus contributing to minimize the stress imposed to allergic individuals and to society/economy in general. So far, the use of novel food processing technologies, as well as commonly used methods, such as heat treatment, biological enzymatic hydrolysis, ultra-high static pressure, glycosylation, and fermentation have been attempted to mitigate the presence of allergens in various foods. However, the effects of such technologies on food allergenicity are still not fully known, meaning that they should be looked with special attention aiming at reducing protein allergenicity. It is an urgent demand of dairy and other food industries to explore an efficient and safe method to reduce allergenicity of allergen protein. Therefore, this research topic aims at filling the gap regarding the knowledge on how to reduce allergenicity of food protein in various products that contains most common allergenic foods. Moreover, this research topic could improve the body of knowledge in the field of food allergy, advancing new pathways for the development of hypoallergenic foods.
The scope of the topic to be considered for inclusion includes, but is not limited to:
● The isolation, characterization and rapid detection technologies of food allergens in raw food materials and processed food products,
● The novel methodologies being used to reduce the allergenicity of food allergens, such as nanotechnology, microwave technology, and molecular biological strategies,
● Methods to evaluate the efficacy of processing treatments on food allergenicity mitigation,
● The alteration of food protein functionality during the process of reducing the allergenicity,
● The relationship of food allergy and gastrointestinal digestion and absorption,
● Food allergy management and prevention strategies in food production and consumption.
Keywords: Food allergy, Allergen protein, Immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated type I hypersensitivity, Protein structure, allergenicity
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