Abstract: Peanut is one of the major allergenic foods, which can cause severe allergic reactions. Currently, there are no effective therapeutic strategies for peanut allergy. For peanut allergic patients, avoiding intake of the foods containing peanuts is the best choice. Meanwhile, the detection of peanuts in foods is becoming particularly important. Herein, major peanut allergens and research progress in peanut allergen detection are introduced. Traditional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), western blotting and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are summarized. ELISA and western blotting are extensively used in the detection of peanut allergens. However, the application of PCR based on DNA or RNA is not common. Moreover, some newly developed detection methods such as biosensor and mass spectrometry are discussed. Both of them are characteristics of faster, easier and more sensitive detection have promising prospects in the detection of peanut allergens.

Key words: peanut allergy, ELISA, western blotting, PCR, biosensors, mass spectrometry (MS)