Award details

Plant food allergies: field to table strategies for reducing their incidence (SAFE)

Reference	BBS/E/F/00041114
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Clare Mills
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Quadram Institute Bioscience
Department	Quadram Institute Bioscience Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	162,203
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/01/2001
End date	31/12/2003
Duration	36 months

Abstract

Apples are the most widely grown and consumed fruit in Europe, but around 1M people are apple allergic. A number of major apple allergens have been identified but detailed information on sensitization patterns is lacking. Focusing on apple allergy the project will characterize allergens, and linkages with severe versus mild symptoms using fruit-allergic patients from across Europe. It will also provide the European Agro-Food industry with strategies to ensure the availability of high quality low allergen foods in European and export markets thus extending consumer choice of fresh or processed foodstuffs with reduced or abolished allergenicity. It will also supply the consumer with reliable and independent information about low allergenic alternatives (existing cultivars and GMO). The IFR contribution to the project will be to investigate the effects of post-harvest storage conditions and processing methods on allergen levels. Storage protocols and processing strategies will be developed which will enable the industry to produce marketable fruit with low allergen levels and thereby contribute to reducing the incidence of fruit allergies. In addition the attitudes of consumers (the general public and allergic patient groups) towards low allergen cultivars (produced by conventional and GMO approaches) will be investigated across Northern and Southern Europe.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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