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 labeling, 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 labeling (including allergens) and nutrition labeling into one piece of legislation. This includes the following substances and food produced from them: