Allergens detection in food and environmental samples in northern Italy

BACKGROUND: The raise in global food trading showed an increase in allergic cases in Europe. Ethnic, novel and hidden food enhanced the probability of consumers to adverse events. The demand for allergens-free food grew with the need to be informed on the ingredients content. EU Reg. 1169/2011, details the products causing allergies or intolerances that must be indicated on the label if present. This work studied the prevalence of suspected allergens into apparently compliant food and environmental samples, aiming to verify their safety. METHODS: Totally, 1611 foodstuffs and 128 swabs were received from January 2022 to April 2023. They were independently tested for gluten, milk, egg, mustard, peanut, pistachio, sesame, soy or hazelnut. Commercial ELISA kits were used according to manufacturers’ instructions. Non-compliance to gluten was >20 ppm, and for the other allergens it was “presence” above the limit of detection. RESULTS: Data showed 46 non-compliant samples (2.6%): 37 foodstuffs (2.1%) and 9 swabs (0.5%). Of these, 16 were irregular for gluten (34.8%) and 14 (9 swabs, 5 food) for egg (30.4%); 9 contained milk (19.5%), 4 (8.7%) hazelnut, 2 (4.3%) soy and 1 (2.2%) peanut. No positives for other allergens. The most tested parameters were gluten (85%) and milk (10%). CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of food allergy in Europe has been increasingly reported. In this study, 97.4% of samples complied with the label and were safe for allergic consumers. Clients were highly sensitive to gluten, egg, milk, soy and nut-free products. Considering the importance of food for human health and the increase in illness cases, checking of compliance to the rules is important. KEY MESSAGES: • The majority of allergens can affect seriously allergic consumers (also death), even if present in traces. A continuous surveillance is very important to prevent risks for sensitive consumers. • The foodstuffs collected in this survey are mainly safe for allergic people.