ALLERGENI ALIMENTARI: TIPOLOGIE DI ANALISI, CONTROLLI E STRATEGIE PER EVITARE CONTAMINAZIONI ACCIDENTALI DURANTE I PROCESSI PRODUTTIVI. A CASE HISTORY.

For food allergens it has to be intended a huge category of harmless substances for most of human beings, but which could provoke allergies or intolerances to some subjects. People could be affected by these matters and every issue could have different symptoms and origins. This paper is focused on main causes of matters related to the consumption of milk and its derivatives, eggs, peanuts and nuts, soy and foods containing gluten. Since allergens could generate some issues to people allergic to those substances, food companies have to adopt different strategies and controls in order to avoid accidental contaminations during their manufacturing processes. It is very important to make a clear distinction between allergies and food intolerances: both are unwanted reactions of the body due to food ingestion containing allergens, but while the allergy is due to the consumption of a specific food, the intolerance has a slow development (from 6 to 24 hours) and could fade after 72-96 hours from first symptoms. In addition, while the allergic phenomenon brings to the generation of some specific antibodies called IgE (immunoglobulins E) to defend the body, intolerances do not generate some immunologic processes. To identify the presence of allergens in foods, it is possible to perform different kind of analysis: methods could focus on the research of the right allergen (protein) or they could try to find a marker which underlines the presence of the allergenic food, such as some specific proteins or DNA slices. Methods based on the protein analysis request the use of different immunochemical detection protocols, which could provide quantitative or qualitative records. Currently, the method called ELISA (Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) is those more adopted by companies and by skilled laboratories and it is able to reveal allergens contained in food using different kits which already exist on the market. Together with the different typologies of analysis, this paper considered also studies based on the kind of cooking and treatment of food in order to verify if any features could modify the allergenicity of some aliments. In particular, the document deepens on the technical irradiance and cooking of foods, process performed in Canada preparing different matrices (pasta, bread, cereals) on the basis of aliments previously irradiated. Finally, through the company Panna Elena located in Savigliano (CN), the different controls and strategies in order to avoid the so called cross-contaminations during production processes were analyzed: in particular, the analysis is focused on the route taken by aliments containing allergens in the plant to avoid any kind of contamination and therefore to grant the health of the final consumer. The study also considered the different manufacturing phases of production of those kind of foods, the order in the manufacturing process on the basis of the allergen contained in the aliment and preventive actions to be performed and those to be taken in case of accidental contamination. The focus on these procedures explained the great effort given by the company to the staff training, together with the definition of right preventive actions and the clear and quick information to the consumer about allergens contained in food produced by the plant.