Abstract: Food allergy has become a worldwide food safety and public health problem that receives increased attention in recent years. In this review, we systematically reviews the recent progress in the field of food allergy including the epidemiologic characteristics, pathogenesis and potential risk factors of food allergy, the identification, characterization and detection technologies for food allergens, food allergy diagnosis and control, and food allergen labeling and risk assessment. Furthermore, we discuss the bottleneck challenges and strategies for research on food allergy and allergens. We believe that this review will provide a reference for the prevention and control of food allergy, the development of hypo-/non-allergenic foods, and food allergen risk.

Key words: food allergy; intestinal mucosal immunity; allergen epitope; evaluation and detection; oral immunotherapy; gut microbiome; hypo-/non-allergenic foods