Analysis of allergens in foods. In: Sicherer, S.H. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Food Allergy, vol. 1. pp. 320–335. UK: Elsevier.

Food allergens are food components that trigger adverse immunologic reactions in sensitized consumers. Food allergy is increasing its prevalence across the globe and it has been estimated to affect up to 10% of human population of western countries. Food allergens are most often proteins or glycoproteins that can interact with the body’s immunecells in a way that initiates the development of a food allergy. Diagnosis of food allergy is complex. The oral food challenge is currently the best diagnostic test to confirm an allergy. Consumers with food allergies can react to very small amounts of the offending allergen contaminating a food. Contamination of foods occurring also with tiny amounts of allergens has prompted the analytical communitytodevelopsensitive and reliable methodologies to address the need to have at disposal reliable methods capable of delivering an accurate measurement of the allergen contaminating a specific food. Methods based on antibody based assays, DNA based assays and MS detection methods have considerably expanded in the last two decades, reaching chal lenging sensitivities and proving to be capable of quantifyingeven minuteamountsof allergens. The mainadvancementsand gaps in analytical methodologies applied to food allergens quantification will be discussed in the different sections of this book article along with pros and cons of each methodology.