A novel technique can discover new allergens

FOR MANY, eating out is a pleasure. For the 5% or so of people who suffer from food allergies, though, it is anything but. Mostly, such allergies cause mild rashes and minor digestive trouble, but they have the potential to trigger anaphylactic shock, a potentially lethal inflammatory response. The resulting swelling can block a patient’s airways, crash blood pressure and either speed up or slow down the heart.The allergy-prone thus need to avoid contact with foods which may provoke this reaction. But that is hard, for two reasons. One is that some common allergenic foodstuffs, such as peanuts, are widely used as ingredients, so cross-contamination in factories and kitchens is an ever-present threat. That threat, though, is being countered by the development of a range of technologies intended to scan food quickly for the presence of allergenic proteins.