Removal of Allergens from Food

Food allergy is an abnormal immune response caused by the ingestion, skin contact, or inhalation of exogenous food macromolecules called allergens or antigens. Until now, allergy sufferers have avoided foods to protect themselves from this health problem. However, with the increasing number of new foods and ingredients being introduced by the industry, it is challenging for allergy sufferers to keep track of all the ingredients in their foods. In addition, cross-contamination of food allergens from one product to another and mislabeling can pose health risks. Numerous thermal and non-thermal food processing interventions have been tested on various allergenic foods to reduce their allergenicity. Ultrasound technology is an emerging technology widely used in food processing and preservation. It has been successfully used to deactivate enzymes, aid in extraction, emulsification, and accelerate dehydration, ripening, and aging processes.

Solutions

Complex food matrices and diverse detection methods make applying specific technologies to reduce allergenicity challenging. As a global allergen detection company, Lifeasible is committed to providing reliable solutions to remove allergens from food. Depending on the needs of our customers, we offer the following two strategies:

Removal of Food Allergens from Surfaces

1. Removal of allergens from surfaces by wiping with paper towels, terry cloths, and alcohol quaternary ammonium chloride (quat) disinfectant wipes
2. Cleaning allergen-contaminated surfaces using a wash-rinse-disinfect-air-dry procedure.

Ultrasound Technology to Reduce Food Allergenicity

We offer ultrasound techniques to disrupt the linear or conformational epitopes of allergenic proteins to reduce the allergenicity of foods.

1. Soybeans. We use ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) to reduce the allergenicity of soy proteins from various soy matrices such as soy flour, soy protein isolate, and soy milk.
2. Milk. We process dairy products using ultrasound (20 kHz and 125 mm amplitude for 60 min). This method maintains the nutritional value of milk and reduces the allergenic potential of β-lactoglobulin.
3. Peanuts. Ultrasonic treatment loosens the structure of peanut proteins, and shear forces break the peptide bonds, which also improves the efficiency of enzymatic processing.
4. Shrimp and Crustaceans. High-intensity ultrasound treatment resulted in a significant reduction in sensitization by reducing the binding of IgE to crude shrimp protein extracts and isolated tropomyosins.

Advantages of Our Solutions

• The application of ultrasound is a new intervention aimed at reducing the allergenicity of certain foods.
• We can also offer structural modification of allergenic proteins by ultrasound, which can be assayed using many in vitro and in vivo methods.
• Increased recovery of total proteins after ultrasound treatment.

Lifeasible is committed to providing professional and customized solutions for removing allergens from food to customers worldwide. We look forward to working with you, and you will benefit from our one-stop shop for everything from testing and reporting to the highest standards of post-analysis. If you are interested in our services, please feel free to contact us for more information.