Background According to EU legislation, genetically modified plants (GM plants) should follow a scientific assessment of any risk that they may pose to human and animal health, including an allergenicity assessment. According to the EFSA guidance, the allergenicity assessment of GM plants is structured into the assessment of i) the newly expressed proteins and ii) the whole GM plant. For the la...

BACKGROUND Sensitization to natural rubber latex has been linked to proteins from medical latex gloves. Various assays to estimate the amount of residual allergenic proteins extractable from latex gloves to assess their potential exposure hazard have inherent weaknesses. OBJECTIVE This investigation was aimed at developing 2-site immunoenzymetric assays and identifying appropriate protein mar...

The secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures of squid hemocyanin (Hc) were characterised, and the relationship between Hc structure and allergenicity responses to high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) was modelled. The Hc allergenicity varied with its protein structure. Electrophoresis analysis revealed that HHP treatment significantly decreased the band intensity of Hc when increasing pressure...

In recent decades, biotechnologists have striven to improve the quantity and quality of food supply. Producing genetically modified (GM) foods is one of the main goals and many countries all over the world have approved the distribution and consumption of the labeled GM foods in their own regions. However, there are still few groups having concerns about allergenicity of GM foods. This review h...

The potential allergenicity of novel proteins expressed in genetically modified organisms is an important item in the safety assessment of these organisms. The various components of the allergenicity assessment include the source of the protein, sequence similarity with known allergenic proteins, in vitro digestibility, sera binding tests, animal models and clinical tests. Recent developments i...

The risk of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and foods derived from GMOs for human health and particularly their allergenicity must be assessed before they are authorized to be put on the market in the European Union. Data from the studies performed by the Applicant are evaluated by the GMO Panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). It then publishes a scientific opinion including...

Respiratory allergy and allergy to foods continue to be important health issues. There is evidence to indicate that the incidence of food allergy around the world is on the rise. Current estimates indicate that approximately 5% of young children and 1-2% of adults suffer from true food allergy (Kagan 2003). Although a large number of in vivo and in vitro tests exist for the clinical diagnosis o...

The ubiquitous presence of allergens in the human food supply coupled with increased awareness of food allergies warrants undertaking appropriate preventive measures to protect sensitive consumers from unwanted exposure to offending food allergens. Attempts to reduce or eliminate food allergenicity through food processing have met with mixed results. The rationale for using food processing to r...

Background Breeding of cereals has been particularly active in the last hundred years, resulting in spectacular improvements in agronomic, resistance or technological traits. Unfortunately for predisposed consumers wheat may induce allergenicity either food or respiratory. More recently, the genetic modification (GM) technology for crop improvement has emerged and although GM wheats are not cul...