THE POTENTIAL ALLERGENICITY OF NOVEL FOODS

Recombinant DNA technology provides a powerful tool to create new prod ucts in many different fields. Agriculture and the agro-food industry are two of them. Genetic engineering aims at improving the yield, the nutritional quality or the technological value of food crops. The comp osition of foods may also be modified in order to decrease the content of toxic substances sometimes present in certain food crops. The expr ession of recombinant proteins in foods must be carefully assessed as proteins may induce allergic reactions in humans. Currently, the poten tial allergenicity of a protein can be reasonably assessed only when t he protein is known to trigger an immune response in sensitive subject s. By contrast, the potential allergenicity of a protein of unknown al lergenicity cannot be easily predicted as no immunoserum of allergic s ubjects is available. That is why an allergenicity assessment model fo r any genetically engineered food should be designed. Even though the gene product is completely characterised in the transgenic product, th is does not necessarily provide information on its potential allergeni city. Animal models, in vitro tests and protein structure should be ta ken into account. Besides, allergenicity is a biosafety issue, for it deals with human health. The issue of food allergies in food safety sh ould not be neglected, as an allergic reaction can be life threatening .