More Sensitive Allergen Tests for Coconut, Peanut and Lupine
State of the Art Allergen Analyses
Oct. 2018. By gaining more knowledge on food matrices and test performance, Eurofins constantly improves its test portfolio. New developments of the kit manufacturers, proficiency tests as well as own validations are taken into account to offer only state of the art methods. As a result, we now can provide you with optimised allergen tests for coconut, peanut and lupine.
Why are Allergen Analyses Important?
The labelling of the main allergens as ingredients is regulated by law in most countries. In order to maintain consumer confidence, a comprehensive allergen management and an informative allergen labelling are important. Food can accidentally contain traces of allergens, e.g. due to cross-contamination. Thus, allergen management systems that include suitable allergen analyses along the entire supply chain are indispensable.
Innovations at Eurofins
The competence center for allergens within the Eurofins network of laboratories - Eurofins Analytik GmbH – has improved several allergen tests on the most sensitive level:
Coconut
In Europe and many other countries, coconut is not an allergen that requires labelling. However, the US regulation defines coconut as a tree nut and therefore coconut must be labelled as an allergen in the US.
In order to meet these country-specific requirements, Eurofins offers an ELISA method which has been validated in various matrices (e.g. spices, fruits, flour, bakery products and chocolate). This quantitative detection of coconut has a determination limit of 2 mg/kg coconut.
Peanut
Peanut is an allergen that has been focused for many years. Peanuts have a very high allergic potential. Therefore, even a tiny amount of peanut may trigger a severe allergic reaction.
To protect consumers, it is important to offer allergen analyses as sensitive as possible. For this reason, Eurofins has implemented a new PCR test for the detection of peanut DNA. Depending on the matrix, the test has a detection limit of 4 - 20 mg/kg peanut.
Lupine
In order to keep the used methods up to date, Eurofins regularly takes part in proficiency testing and takes into account the results of suitability tests carried out by different kit manufacturers.
As a result, the former allergen analysis for lupine is replaced by a new ELISA test with a better performance. This test has a determination limit of 2 mg/kg lupine.
Further Information
Do you have any questions on the allergen analysis of food? Please contact your account manager or directly our allergen experts at our competence centre in Hamburg.
