This European Commission-funded research project, known as the Integrated Approaches to Food Allergen and Allergy Risk Management (iFAAM), produced a standardised management process for food manufacturing companies to handle allergens .. Tools were designed to enforce EU allergen regulations and produce evidence-based knowledge to provide new health advice for pregnant women, babies and allergy sufferers. Professor Clare Mills, from the Allergy and Respiratory Centre of The University of Manchester’s Institute of Inflammation and Repair coordinated the project. The project had a kick-off meeting in 2013 in Manchester and subsequent biannual meetings in Cork, (2013), Vienna (2014), Zagreb (2014), Brussels  (2015), Berlin (2015), Amsterdam (2016), Rome (2016), Geel (2016) and finally in Madrid (2017).

There is currently a list of foods considered to be responsible for triggering the majority of allergies across the world which includes milk, egg, peanuts, soya, wheat, tree nuts, mustard, lupin, fish, crustacean and molluscan shell fish and celery which have to be labelled irrespective of the level at which they are included in a recipe. However, management of food allergens that accidently find their way into foods which might otherwise be free of allergen, for example through the use of common processing equipment, remains problematic and often gives rise to precautionary “may contain” labels.

FoodLife International analysed allergen recall data from the EU, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand for the past 5 years and entered the information into an Access database. This work was published in 2019 as was a critical review of ELISA and PCR technologies for detection of allergens in foods in 2016.

List of Some Publications:

2019

• Senyuva H., Jones I. B., Sykes M & Baumgartner S., (2019) A critical review of the specifications and performance of antibody and DNA-based methods for detection and quantification of allergens in foods Food Addit Contam Part A 36(4): 507–547 https://doi.org/10.1080/19440049.2019.1579927

2016

• Bucchini L., Guzzon A., Poms R., Senyuva H. (2016). Analysis and critical comparison of food allergen recalls from the European Union, USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. Food Addit Contam Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess. 33(5):760-71 DOI: 1080/19440049.2016.1169444 | PubMed: 27004727

• J. Turner, J. L. Baumert, K. Beyer, R.J Boyle, C.-H. Chan, A. T. Clarke, …B. K. Ballmer-Weber. (2016). Can we identify patients at risk of life-threatening allergic reactions to food? Allergy, [Epub ahead of print] DOI:10.1111/all.12924 | PubMed:27138061

• Sayers R L., Gethings L., Wallace A., Semic-Jusufgic A., Simpson A., Perdita Barran, John Gilbert, Hamide Senyuva, Adrian Rodgers, Mike Bromley, Michael Walker, Helen Brown,  E. N. Clare Mills, (2016) How Much of a Problem Is Peanut in Ground Cumin for Individuals with Peanut Allergy? J Allergy Clin Immunol

2015

• Dunn Galvin, A., Chun-Han, C., Crevel, R., Grimshaw, K., Poms, R., Schnadt, S., … Chan, C-H. (2015). Precautionary allergen labelling: perspectives from key stakeholder groups. Allergy, 70(9). DOI:1111/all.12614. Publication link: 0f646e43-4240-47a1-8b35-fa61444dd119 | PubMed:25808296

• Munro, C., Semic-Jusufagic, A., Pyrz, K., Couch, P., Dunn-Galvin, A., Peek, N., … Simpson, A. (2015). An eHealth Approach to Reporting Allergic Reactions to Food and Closing the Knowledge Gap. Studies in health technology and informatics, 216.. Publication link: fb0fd188-4341-4e47-8666-843d84df0a9f | PubMed:26262063

• Datema, M. R., Zuidmeer-Jongejan, L., Asero, R., Barreales, L., Belohlavkova, S., de Blay, F., van Ree, R. (2015). Hazelnut allergy across Europe dissected molecularly: A EuroPrevall outpatient clinic survey.The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology, 136(2). DOI:1016/j.jaci.2014.12.1949. Publication link: 11088a1a-98de-4ff1-a45e-674e31e6661c | PubMed:25772593

• Blanc F., Bernard H., Ah-Leung S., Przybylski-Nicaise L., Skov PS., Purohit A., … Adel-Patient K. (2015). Further studies on the biological activity of hazelnut allergens. Clin Transl Allergy 5-26 DOI:1186/s13601-015-0066-7| PubMed:26191402

iFAAM involves 38 partners who include: AMC, Anaphylaxis Ireland, Charite, FARRP, BOKU, ACHR, DAAB, Unilever, SERMAS, TNO, UCC, PEI, DLO-FBR, ILSI, USOU, UoA, UZH, MUL, ACP, LUH, OUH, SCH, DTU, INRA-CRJJ, Leatherhead, Eurofins, JRC, INDOOR, ANSES, Hylo, MoniQA, FLI, EuroFir, KCL, Nestec, ACUK.

Countries involved include: Greece, Germany, Ireland, US, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, Spain, Iceland, Croatia, Lithuania, Denmark, France, Italy, Turkey.