Study to revolutionise allergen management

A multinational collaboration has launched the world’s biggest-ever study of food allergies. Spearheaded by the University of Manchester, the €9 million project builds on an earlier €14.3 million research study and will involve leading experts in the UK, Europe, Australia and the US.

The Integrated Approaches to Food Allergies and Allergy Risk Management (iFAAM) will produce a standardised management process for companies involved in food manufacturing. It will also develop tools designed to enforce these regulations and produce evidence-based knowledge to inform new health advice on nutrition for pregnant women, babies and allergy sufferers.

The Manchester team will work with 38 partners including industry stakeholders Unilever and Eurofins, patient groups and a risk manager and assessor group including the UK Food Standards Agency.

“This is a massive research project which will have far-reaching consequences for consumers and food producers,” said Professor Clare Mills, from the University of Manchester’s Institute of Inflammation and Repair, who will head the study.

“The evidence-based tools that result from this will support more transparent precautionary ‘may contain’ labelling of allergens in foods, which will make life easier for allergy sufferers as they try to avoid problem foods.”

New risk models will be built on pre-existing clinical data sets to support management of these allergens in a factory environment to minimise the use of ‘may contain’ labels. Other researchers will look at tools to measure allergens in food to allow validation and monitoring of allergen management plans. Other strands of the project will seek to predict who is likely to suffer a severe reaction, and identify whether early introduction of allergenic foods and other nutritional factors may be protective against development of allergies later on in life.

“The widespread use of ‘may contain’ statements is both frustrating and limiting for allergic consumers,” said Regina Cahill of Anaphylaxis Ireland.“ This type of precautionary statement can often leave consumers wondering if the product is likely to contain the allergen mentioned and can lead to risk taking.

“The development of safe allergen thresholds would give the food industry guidelines to work within and would hopefully lead to a welcome reduction in the use of ‘may contain’ statements.”