Effect of acid treatment on allergenicity of peanut and egg

J Sci Food Agric. 2017 May;97(7):2116-2121. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.8017. Epub 2016 Oct 6.

Abstract

Background: Many food experts have studied various treatments or processing techniques in order to develop hypoallergenic foods. In a previous study, acid treatment dramatically mitigated the allergenicity of peanut, especially Ara h 2.

Results: Gel electrophoresis showed that most protein bands of acid-treated peanut were not detected, but protein bands of egg white became weaker and broader by acid treatment. In immunoblotting using a rabbit antibody, the antigenicity against ovalbumin or ovomucoid in acid-treated egg white was decreased but the antigenicity against Ara h 1 or Ara h 2 in peanut treated with pH 2 acetic acid was completely undetected. The allergenicity of ovalbumin and peanut fell significantly to 1/1022 and 1/5380, respectively, when measured as IC50 in the sample treated with pH 2.0 acetic acid.

Conclusion: This study showed that acid treatment was more effective in peanut and barely effective in ovomucoid. This may contribute to the development of hypoallergenic food and clinical management of food allergy. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Keywords: acetic acid, IgE; allergenicity; egg; peanut, allergens.

MeSH terms

  • Acetic Acid / chemistry*
  • Allergens / chemistry*
  • Allergens / immunology
  • Animals
  • Arachis / chemistry*
  • Arachis / immunology
  • Chickens
  • Egg Hypersensitivity / immunology
  • Egg White / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Ovalbumin / chemistry
  • Ovalbumin / immunology
  • Peanut Hypersensitivity / immunology

Substances

  • Allergens
  • Ovalbumin
  • Acetic Acid