Critical reviews and recent advances of novel non-thermal processing techniques on the modification of food allergens

Abstract

Nowadays, the increasing prevalence of food allergy has become a public concern related to human health worldwide. Thus, it is imperative and necessary to provide some efficient methods for the management of food allergy. Some conventional processing methods (e.g., boiling and steaming) have been applied in the reduction of food immunoreactivity, while these treatments significantly destroy nutritional components present in food sources. Several studies have shown that novel processing techniques generally have better performance in retaining original characteristics of food and improving the efficiency of eliminating allergens. This review has focused on the recent advances of novel non-thermal processing techniques including high-pressure processing, ultrasound, pulsed light, cold plasma, fermentation, pulsed electric field, enzymatic hydrolysis, and the combination processing of them. Meanwhile, general information on global food allergy prevalence and food allergy pathology are also described. Hopefully, these findings regarding the modifications on the food allergens through various novel food processing techniques can provide an in-depth understanding in the mechanism of food allergy, which in turn possibly provides a strategy to adapt in the reduction of food immunoreactivity for the food industries.

Keywords:

• Fermentation
• modification of food allergens
• novel non-thermal processing
• pulsed electric field

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

All the authors thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Discovery Grants Program (NSERC) [RGPIN-2014-04190] for supporting this research project.