Abstract: Food allergens are the major causes of food allergies, which are mainly proteins. The antigen epitope is a special chemical group in the antigen molecule, which can react with antibody or be recognized by the antigen receptor, and trigger the body’s immune response. Understanding food allergens at the epitope level can reveal the material basis of food allergic reactions and provide precise targets for solving the problem of food allergy. This paper reviews the development of food allergen epitope localization technologies based on different epitope structures and localization methods, and discusses further prospects for the application prospects of allergen epitope information for improving the existing food allergen identification technologies and hypoallergenic food processing methods.

Key words: food allergen; epitope mapping; T cell epitope; B cell epitope; linear epitope; conformational epitope