Page 45 - Food&Drink Magazine August 2019

multiple analyses of the sub- sampled food at various stages of processing are required to make sure that uniform distribution of the allergen is achieved.
Contamination between batches with increasing levels of allergen can be controlled by starting with the lowest concentration and steadily increasing the levels.
Another important consideration is the stability of the incurred material. Any processing effects that the allergen undergoes can usually be determined quickly during analysis. But if the incurred material is to be stored for any length of time and used to generate real world standard curves for an analytical method, then the shelf life of the material
must be ascertained. There is a possibility that further reactions between the proteins of the allergen and the components of the food matrix into which it is incorporated could occur during storage.
Since the production of well-defined incurred controls is not easy, storage of these controls would allow their future use for evaluating improved analytical methods. Such incurred control materials may also be used to evaluate batch-to-batch variability for commercial ELISA kits.
EARLY SUCCESSES WITH INCURRED SAMPLES Very slowly, fully validated incurred reference materials for food allergen analysis are
coming onto the market. The MoniQA Association has recently released a milk- incurred material that incorporates well- characterised dried skimmed milk powder into a gluten free cookie at two individual protein concentrations. This incurred reference material has been produced to mimic as closely as possible the processing through which an allergen-containing food goes during production. This is a distinct advantage as it more closely reflects the real-world foods that are routinely tested in analytical labs across the world and gives a good indication of the suitability of the analytical methods used to detect processed allergens.
Advancing such research even further, work undertaken at the University of Manchester under the guidance of Professor Clare Mills has investigated how an allergen-incurred chocolate dessert material originally developed for the diagnosis of food allergies can be adapted for use as an analytical control material.
Such research is
encouraging and could play
a vital role in expanding the comprehensiveness of allergen testing in processed foods. The use of a matrix and incurred food ingredients with demonstrable allergenic activity for analytical purposes will help ensure
that efforts to standardise calibration materials and hahrmonise allergen-reporting units are meaningfully aligned with ongoing measures to protect allergic consumers
from accidental exposure
to problem foods. ✷
✷ ABOUTTHEAUTHOR
FOOD TESTING
Adrian Rogers is a senior
research scientist with
Romer Labs. He is
responsible for research
and development within
Romer’s allergen
competence centre based in the UK.
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