European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Retieseweg 111, 2440, Geel, Belgium.
Departamento de Agrochímica y Biochímica, University of Alicante, Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, 03690, San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain.
Anal Bioanal Chem. 2020 Dec;412(30):8249-8267. doi: 10.1007/s00216-020-02959-0. Epub 2020 Oct 2.
The establishment of a reference method for the determination of the allergen protein content in a processed food material has been explored. An analytical approach was developed to enable the comparability of food allergen measurement results expressed in a decision-relevant manner. A proof of concept is here presented, resulting in quantity values for the common measurand, namely 'mass of total allergen protein per mass of food'. The quantities are determined with SI traceability to enable the comparability of reported results. A method for the quantification of total milk protein content in an incurred baked food at a concentration level clinically relevant is presented. The strategy on how to obtain the final analytical result is outlined. Challenges associated with this method are discussed, in particular the optimal extraction of the marker proteins, the complete digestion and release of the peptides in an equimolar fashion, the use of conversion factors to translate the amount of measured proteins into total milk protein and the estimation of the uncertainty contributions as well as of the combined uncertainty of the final result. The implementation of such a reference method for the determination of the total allergen content in a processed food is an important step, which will provide comparable measurement data of relevance to risk assessors. Graphical abstract.
已经探索了为加工食品材料中过敏原蛋白含量的测定建立参考方法。开发了一种分析方法，以便以决策相关的方式比较过敏原测量结果。这里提出了一个概念验证，得到了常见可测量值的量值，即“每单位食品的总过敏原蛋白质量”。这些数量具有 SI 可追溯性，以实现报告结果的可比性。提出了一种在临床相关浓度水平下定量测定烘焙食品中总牛奶蛋白含量的方法。概述了如何获得最终分析结果的策略。讨论了该方法相关的挑战，特别是如何优化标记蛋白的提取、如何以等摩尔的方式完全消化和释放肽、如何使用转换因子将测量的蛋白量转换为总牛奶蛋白以及如何估计不确定度贡献以及最终结果的综合不确定度。在加工食品中测定总过敏原含量的参考方法的实施是重要的一步，它将为风险评估人员提供相关的可比测量数据。
