Reducing shrimp allergenicity

Monday, 12 April 2010 09:30

A study published in the Journal of Food Science has found that boiling shrimps for ten minutes may cut down the levels of the allergen tropomyosin. The study also found the thermal stability of tropomyosin purified from boiled shrimp was the same as that of tropomyosin purified from raw shrimp.

However, the IgE binding activity of boiled tropomyosin was stronger than that of raw tropomyosin, which suggests it may be a more effective antigen in diagnosing shrimp allergy through immunoassay.

Patients with shrimp allergy often exhibit allergic symptoms to a variety of seafood such as crabs and clams. Tropomyosin has been described as an important food allergen in shrimp, lobster, crab, oysters, squid, and so on. Allergic reactions to tropomyosins are often cross-reactive, which may be explained by the highly conserved amino acid sequences.

Boiling may alter shrimp extracts in a manner that may permit masking of allergenic epitopes thereby reducing allergen recognition and potentially altering allergenicity of the food, which suggest that boiling can be used as a tool in attempting to reduce/eliminate food allergens.

Reference: Liu et al. 2010. Journal of Food Science. Vol 75(1), pp T1 - T5. Doi: 10.1111/j.1750-3841.2009.01391.x