Food allergy scientist meeting

A meeting was recently held in the UK of food scientists from research organisations, bioanalytical companies, food manufacturers and food regulation authorities to discuss the latest developments in food allergy testing. Professor Clare Mills from the Institute of Food Research chaired the meeting.

The focus of the program was to present the work that is being funded by the UK Food Standards Agency and the European Union through the EuroPrevall, MoniQA projects. The group also discussed further requirements and visions for future developments in this field. In feedback groups, the participants were given the opportunity to comment on the importance and feasibility of the work to be undertaken by the European-wide projects and this served to provide useful recommendations for future work and improve collaboration with the stakeholder groups.

Other issues addressed at the meeting included better standardisation of tests and developments to benefit consumers and all stakeholders in the management of allergen cross-contamination in food. The future development of a reference material that can link clinical symptoms to analytical results was put forward as a useful outcome to include in the project aims.

According to Professor Mills, outcomes of the EuroPrevall study will be reported in a series of papers over the next year. This information will add to the current knowledge of the prevalence and distribution of food allergy globally.