A critical review of the specifications and performance of antibody and
DNA-based methods for detection and quantification of allergens in foods

ABSTRACT

Despite the availability of a large number of antibody and DNA based methods for detection and quantification of allergens in food there remain significant difficulties in selecting the optimum technique to employ. Published methods from research groups mostly contain sufficient detail concerning target antigen, calibration procedures and method performance to allow replication by others. However, routine allergen testing by the food industry relies upon commercialised test kits and frequently the suppliers provide disappointingly little specification detail on the grounds that this is proprietary information. In this review we have made a critical assessment of the published literature describing the performance of both commercial and non-commercial test kits for food allergens over the period 2008–2018. Mass spectrometric methods, which have the potential to become reference methods for allergens, are not covered in this review. Available information on the specifications of commercial ELISA and LFD test kits are tabulated for milk, egg and peanut allergens, where possible linking to publications concerning collaborative studies and proficiency testing. For a number of commercial PCR test kits, specifications provided by manufacturers for detection of a small selection of allergen are tabulated. In conclusion we support the views of others of the critical need for allergen reference materials as the way forward to improve the comparability of different testing strategies in foods.

KEYWORDS:

• Immunoassay
• strip tests
• PCR
• commercialised test kits
• method performance
• proficiency testing
• allergen reference materials

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to a number of i-FAAM partners for critical comments and helpful discussion during the drafting of this review. We are also grateful for the assistance of commercial kit manufacturers in supplying test kit specification data. We gratefully acknowledge the support of Dominic Anderson (FAPAS™ coordinator for allergens PT), and Ina Zile (undergraduate student, University of York, UK) who studied the variable precision of allergen ELISA data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work undertaken to prepare this review was undertaken with funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Program [FP7/2007-2013] for research, technological development and demonstration (grant agreement number 312147 Integrated approaches to food allergen and allergy management (i-FAAM)). Mark Sykes was funded by Fera Science Ltd.