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Concerns arise: wheat allergy risk in pre-packaged food products from China

Wenfeng Liua,b,c,d, Jian Wanga,b,c,d, Zhongliang Wanga,b,c,d, Fangfang Mina,b,c,d, Yong Wua,c,d, Juanli Yuana,d,e, Jinyan Gaob,d, Hongbing Chena,c,d()
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
School of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China
Sino-German Joint Research Institute, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
Jiangxi Province Key Laboratory of Food Allergy, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330036, China

Peer review under responsibility of Tsinghua University Press.

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Abstract

Understanding and monitoring the cross-contamination of food allergens is crucial for safeguarding public health and ensuring food safety. Food allergen risk assessment, derived from classical toxicological principles, can identify and quantify the risk of allergies. This study aimed to investigate the risk of wheat allergic reactions to prepackaged foods from China through the utilization of food allergen risk assessment. A total of 575 products have been surveyed, wheat/gluten, milk and egg were major allergens labelled on products. According to voluntary incidental trace allergen labelling 3.0 (VITAL® 3.0) program, the number of products belonged to Action Level 2 were 303. Integration of precautionary allergen labeling (PAL) analysis indicated that 9.57% products would pose a potential risk to wheat allergic individuals. The probabilistic risk assessment results suggest that 7984 allergic reactions may arise among wheat-allergic consumers during 10000 eating occasions due to the consumption of pre-packaged food products with incorrect wheat-related allergen labelling. This study demonstrated that a risk assessment-based approach can support the guidance of allergen labelling and management of food allergen for pre-packaged food products, providing protection for allergic individuals in food consumption and for food manufacturers in food production and trade.

Keywords

Food allergensAllergen labellingPre-packaged foodEnzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)Voluntary incidental trace allergen labelling (VITAL)Quantitative risk assessment

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Food Science and Human Wellness
Volume 13 Issue 6,
November 2024
Pages 3139-3149
DOI: 10.26599/FSHW.2024.9250277
Cite this article:
Liu W, Wang J, Wang Z, et al. Concerns arise: wheat allergy risk in pre-packaged food products from China. Food Science and Human Wellness, 2024, 13(6): 3139-3149. https://doi.org/10.26599/FSHW.2024.9250277
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Analysis of 8 food allergens in pre-packaged foods with summary allergen labelling and PAL.

Categories Milk and its products Egg and its products Peanut and its products Nuts and its products Fish and its products Sesame and its products Wheat/cereals containing gluten and its products Crustacean and its products
Biscuits 46 40 27 23 2 21 46 9
Nuts 1 1 2 0 1 0 1 2
Egg products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Starch and its products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Soy products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Instant foods 4 4 3 1 3 2 4 4
Bakery 23 22 9 13 2 6 25 1
Canning 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Meat products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Milk products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Vegetable products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Potato and expanded foods 19 13 3 4 10 3 18 17
Aquatic products 2 2 0 2 3 1 3 2
Fruit products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Confectionery products 15 5 5 12 0 4 13 0
Beverage 2 0 1 1 0 1 1 0

Analysis of 8 food allergens in pre-packaged foods with summary allergen labelling only.

Categories Milk and its products Egg and its products Peanut and its products Nuts and its products Fish and its products Sesame and its products Wheat/cereals containing gluten and its products Crustacean and its products
Biscuits 15 12 2 2 0 2 24 0
Nuts 1 1 7 16 0 0 9 2
Egg products 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Starch and its products 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Soy products 1 0 1 0 0 0 5 0
Instant foods 0 1 0 1 0 0 3 0
Bakery 50 70 0 1 0 4 78 3
Canning 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Meat products 0 2 1 0 1 3 2 1
Milk products 8 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Vegetable products 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Potato and expanded foods 33 5 2 1 6 3 51 13
Aquatic products 2 5 0 0 4 0 2 1
Fruit products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Confectionery products 16 0 0 2 0 0 3 0
Beverage 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Analysis of 8 food allergens in pre-packaged foods with PAL only.

Categories Milk and its products Egg and its products Peanut and its products Nuts and its products Fish and its products Sesame and its products Wheat/cereals containing gluten and its products Crustacean and its products
Biscuits 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Nuts 1 1 2 2 0 0 2 0
Egg products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Starch and its products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Soy products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Instant foods 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Bakery 0 1 1 0 0 2 2 0
Canning 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Meat products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Milk products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Vegetable products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Potato and expanded foods 3 0 0 0 1 0 4 1
Aquatic products 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1
Fruit products 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Confectionery products 7 3 3 4 1 0 7 0
Beverage 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0

Analysis of VITAL Action Level for different categories of food products.

Categories VITAL Action Level 1 VITAL Action Level 2 Products at VITAL Action Level 2 without wheat related PAL (proportion (%))
Biscuits 1 78 9 (11.54)
Nuts 31 15 5 (33.33)
Egg products 9 0 0
Starch and its products 2 0 0
Soy products 9 8 4 (50)
Instant foods 2 7 1 (14.29)
Bakery 8 121 21 (17.36)
Canning 0 1 0
Meat products 17 1 1 (100)
Milk products 17 0 0
Vegetable products 3 0 0
Potato and expanded foods 64 55 10 (18.18)
Aquatic products 13 3 1 (33.33)
Fruit products 11 0 0
Confectionery products 59 12 1 (8.33)
Beverage 25 3 3 (100)
Total 272 303

Analysis for the food products with incorrect labelling.

Categories CL-1 ICL-1 CL-2 ICL-2 Total
Frequency Proportion (%) Frequency Proportion (%) Frequency Proportion (%) Frequency Proportion (%)
Biscuits 70 88.61 9 11.39 69 87.34 10 12.66 79
Nuts 39 84.78 7 15.22 38 82.61 8 17.39 46
Egg products 9 100 0 0 9 100 0 0 9
Starch and its products 1 50.00 1 50.00 1 50.00 1 50.00 2
Soy products 12 70.59 5 29.41 13 76.47 4 23.53 17
Instant foods 7 77.78 2 22.22 8 88.89 1 11.11 9
Bakery 103 79.84 26 20.16 105 81.40 24 18.60 129
Canning 0 0 1 100 1 100 0 0 1
Meat products 15 83.33 3 16.67 16 88.89 2 11.11 18
Milk products 17 100 0 0 17 100 0 0 17
Vegetable products 2 66.67 1 33.33 2 66.67 1 33.33 3
Potato and expanded foods 82 68.91 37 31.09 84 70.59 35 29.41 119
Aquatic products 12 75.00 4 25.00 14 87.50 2 12.50 16
Fruit products 11 100 0 0 11 100 0 0 11
Confectionery products 56 78.88 15 21.12 60 84.51 11 15.49 71
Beverage 26 92.86 2 7.14 26 92.86 2 7.14 28
Total 462 113 474 101 575

Related parameters deriving from fitting an exponential model to different classes of data.

Source of data Rate Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC)
Gluten concentration (×10-6) 6.90 ×10−5 1144.86 1146.85
Simulated consumption (kg) 0.015 562.78 564.77
Wheat proteins intake (mg) 8.33 ×10−4 161805.1 161812.3