Abstract:

Non-thermal processing can modify the structures of food allergens so as to achieve the controlling of food
allergens via non-thermal treatment. Currently, common non-thermal treatments include physical methods, chemical
methods, biological methods and enzymatic modification. Physical methods mainly refer to ultra-high pressure, irradiation,
ultrasound and high-voltage pulse, which could influence the high-level structure and conformation of allergen epitopes.
Moreover, high irradiation dose is also able to modify the linear epitopes. Chemical methods, such as glycosylation,
methylation and phsophorylation, mainly destroy linear epitopes by modifying the primary structure of allergen proteins.
However, enzymatic modification is widely used to decrease the allergenicity by enzymatic cross-linking to aggregate or
degrade allergens. Biological methods are mainly realized by mutating allergenic epitopes of allergens or allergen protein
gene silencing via genetic engineering techniques, consequently leading to modification of epitopes and no expression of
allergens. This paper summarize the recent progress in research on non-thermal processing to control food allergens, in order
to provide a theoretical basis for development and production of desensitized food.

Key words: food allergen, allergenicity, non-thermal processing