Food Allergens
Food allergens are typically naturally-occurring proteins in foods or derivatives of them that cause abnormal
immune responses, sometimes even life-threatening reactions in sensitized individuals. Scientists estimate that
approximately 2 – 4 % of adults and 6 – 8 % of children suffer from food allergies as well as the huge number of
persons with food intolerances. 90% of all food allergies are caused by the following 8 foodstuffs: milk, eggs,
peanuts, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, wheat and soy.
Histamine is a chemical in your body responsible for a few major functions. When histamine levels get too high
or when histamine cannot break down properly, it can affect your normal bodily functions. Histamine is most
associated with common allergic responses and symptoms. Many of these symptoms are similar to those exhibited
from histamine intolerance. Histamine intolerance can cause uncomfortable symptoms, but it can be treated with a
low-histamine diet.
To protect consumers and to assure an adequate labelling, a reliable allergen analysis must be applied. For
this purpose, Creative Diagnostics offers a full range of food allergen test kits which reliably detect the
presence of potential allergens caused by cross-contaminations. The kits provide accurate and fast results and
are available for all key allergens.
To protect allergic persons from undesired consumption of allergens, the food labeling regulation of the EU was
passed. EU Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers brings together EU rules on
general food labelling (including allergens) and nutrition labelling into one piece of legislation. This
includes following substances and food produced from them:
