Cleaning and Other Control and Validation Strategies To Prevent Allergen Cross-Contact in Food-Processing Operations

Abstract

Food allergies affect an estimated 10 to 12 million people in the United States. Some of these individuals can develop life-threatening allergic reactions when exposed to allergenic proteins. At present, the only successful method to manage food allergies is to avoid foods containing allergens. Consumers with food allergies rely on food labels to disclose the presence of allergenic ingredients. However, undeclared allergens can be inadvertently introduced into a food via cross-contact during manufacturing. Although allergen removal through cleaning of shared equipment or processing lines has been identified as one of the critical points for effective allergen control, there is little published information on the effectiveness of cleaning procedures for removing allergenic materials from processing equipment. There also is no consensus on how to validate or verify the efficacy of cleaning procedures. The objectives of this review were (i) to study the incidence and cause of allergen cross-contact, (ii) to assess the science upon which the cleaning of food contact surfaces is based, (iii) to identify best practices for cleaning allergenic foods from food contact surfaces in wet and dry manufacturing environments, and (iv) to present best practices for validating and verifying the efficacy of allergen cleaning protocols.

Quality and Safety Aspects of Food Products Addressing the Needs of Pregnant Women and Infants

“…The food and nutritional product industry has devoted considerable resources over the past decade to develop allergen control plans to prevent or at least reduce the risk of contamination throughout the manufacturing lines [20]. Basic components of an allergenic control plan include a general risk assessment of the impact of a hazard, segregation of allergenic foods and ingredients during storage, handling and processing, preventive measures such as equipment cleaning and/or sanitation before and after each production step or even ‘dedication-harmonization', which means a complete separation of manufacturing plants or production lines for allergen-containing and allergen-free nutritional products.…”

Antibody‐Based Detection Methods: From Theory to Practice

“…They include corners and surfaces difficult to clean. Sampling also requires special attention to the first food products coming out from shared lines for allergen-and non-allergen-containing products, because of the higher likelihood for cross-contact (Jackson et al, 2008). To minimize sampling variability, greater sample size has been recommended for the analysis of peanut allergens in chocolate bars and Cry9C in corn flour and meal Whitaker et al, 2004).…”

Nut Allergen Detection

“…Interpreting results of analysis at these threshold limits would require better quantitative methods. Compatible approaches that first seek to improve allergen controls [e.g., cleaning validation (Jackson et al, 2008)] and evolve best practices are growing (e.g., UK Food Standards Agency Allergen Guidelines, BRC Global Standard v5, UK Anaphylaxis Campaign Food Manufacturing Standard).…”