State of the art on food allergens - a review

The review addresses contemporary problems linked with the incidence of food allergy, cross-reactivity of allergens of various origin, hidden allergens resulting from the use of food additives, food contaminations and infections, as well as widely-distributed allergens connected with universal functions in respective tissues, including: enzymes, lipid transport proteins (LTP), and pathogenesis-related proteins (PR-proteins). In addition, it provides characteristics of major food allergens of plant and animal origin. Extension of the array of allergenic products has been shown to be affected by globalization processes, international food turnover, extension of cultivation area and popularization of Western cultural habits. Technological processes applied to raw materials and food are likely to change allergenicity of the finished product, i.e. either decrease or increase it