People allergic to almonds, cashews and walnuts know how hard it is to make sure the processed foods they buy don't contain them as ingredients.
But help may be on the way. Scientists say they have developed new tests that can find trace elements of these nuts - even after they have been heated or irradiated with gamma radiation.
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Being able to spot these nut proteins may lead to better consumer labelling and help prevent severe allergic reactions, they say.
Research purpose
"The purpose of this research was to find out if these tests can be used to detect trace amounts of these nuts after processing. We also wanted to see if these nuts, when exposed to processing such as roasting, frying, and gamma radiation, can be recognized by these tests," said lead researcher Dr Shridhar Sathe, a professor of food science at Florida State University.
"We found that these nuts do not lose their ability to be recognised by our tests," he added. The tests identify specific proteins in the processed nuts themselves, even when they are incorporated into other food products, Sathe said.
The study appears in the June issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.
Don’t be lulled
"Processors or users of these nuts should not be lulled into thinking that processed nuts are safe because they have been exposed to extensive heat or gamma radiation," Sathe said. "They should not think that processing will destroy the ability of these nuts to cause an allergic reaction in sensitive individuals."
Sathe strongly believes that even trace elements of these nuts should be noted on food labelling. "No matter how small the number of sensitive people may be protected, I am a firm believer that every single life is invaluable and should be protected," he said.
According to Sathe, the Florida team has evaluated currently available tests for peanuts and found them wanting. These tests are not specific or sensitive enough to detect trace elements, he said.
Simple processing may not protect
"If you are allergic to tree nuts, almonds, cashews, or walnuts, simple processing may not protect you from allergic reactions even when processed by gamma radiation alone or in combination with other methods," he said. "That's it, in a nutshell."
Dr David Katz, an associate clinical professor at Yale University School of Public Health and director of the Yale Prevention Research Center, said that "hypersensitivity to certain nuts is among the most common and potentially dangerous of food allergies."
He added that people subject to these allergies have had to fend for themselves because nut traces can turn up in foods ostensibly free of nuts. Often food labeling is an adequate defense against this, but it's not foolproof.
"The availability of a highly sensitive and cost-effective test for nut proteins should lead to routine testing of food products subject to mixing with nut residue," Katz said.
"With suitable labeling, this simple intervention could help avoid potentially life-threatening allergic responses, and shift the burden of vigilance from individual to industry. That's just the way any scientific advance is supposed to work," he said. - (HealthDayNews)
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