MS based methods as a valuable multi target screening tool for monitoring allergen contamination in food products

The protection of allergic consumers have become an important health issue especially in industrialized countries. To protect allergic people, labelling rules in European Directives 2003/89/EC and 2006/142/EC establish that consumers must be provided with comprehensive ingredient listing information to allow them to easily identify ingredients they need to avoid. Such labeling requirements were extended in 2014 to unpackaged food including catering outlets, deli counters, bakeries and sandwich sellers. At the moment, food manufacturers can use an advisory label (such as "May contain ...") on packaged and unpackaged foods to inform consumers about the potential presence of allergens due to cross-contamination and/or clean down efficiencies during food production. Currently, allergen detection in contaminated food is mainly based on immunochemistry techniques (ELISA) although this method could be affected by cross-reactivity and/or by possible epitope masking caused by food processing. As consequence, an alternative method for confirmatory analysis is required. Mass spectrometry is a non-immunological method for high-specificity and high-sensitivity detection of allergens in foods. Several mass spectrometry-based methods have been developed in last years for the single or multi-allergen detection on different matrices (wine and bakery products). Although many efforts have been done till now, some aspects remain to be investigated mainly related to the efficacy of the methods used for the protein extraction from complex matrices and the effects that food process could have on protein modification and aggregation probably altering the efficacy of protein/peptide detection. A review of recent researches in this field and the last results obtained by our Institute will be presented in this communication.