Development of Reference Materials for food allergen analysis
Development of reference materials: Objectives, deliverables and milestones
This report fulfils the final deliverable of the project.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is an independent non-ministerial government department working across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to protect public health and consumers' wider interests in food. Food hypersensitivity (food allergy, intolerance and coeliac disease) is a key priority for the FSA. Since 1994, FSA (and its predecessor department) has invested over £20 million in funding over 60 research projects, as part of its Food Allergy and Intolerance Research (FAIR) Programme [2], [3]. The key themes in the current FSA strategy (2022 – 2027) are ‘Food is safe’, ‘Food is what it says it is’ and ‘Food is healthier and more sustainable’[4] Food Hypersensitivity is a key element of the FSA’s Strategy 2022–2027 which notes “We work closely with food businesses to ensure they understand their responsibilities and embed the management of food hypersensitivity in a strong food safety culture. This means consumers can make safer choices about the food they buy.” Hence, providing the means, through appropriate RMs, to improve food allergen analysis aligns with FSA priorities.
The objectives of the present study were as shown in Table 1. The project deliverables and milestones were as shown in Table 2. This report fulfils the final deliverable of the project.
Table 1: Project objectives
| Objective | Objective description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identification and characterisation of allergenic food ingredients for use in QC and RMs. |
| 2 | Production of the Reference Material kit according to the principles of ISO Guide 34, superseded by ISO 17034:2016 |
| 3 | Characterisation of the incurred reference material |
| 4 | Promote the use of reference materials for method validation and/or calibration with users [dissemination/stakeholder engagement]. |
Table 2: Project deliverables and milestones
*By agreement with FSA certain deliverables target dates were relaxed.
| Deliverable | Target date | Title of deliverable or milestone | Deliverable achieved |
|---|---|---|---|
| D1.1 | 31/02/2018 | Publication regarding allergen targets including verified allergen sequence databases. | Achieved |
| D1.2 | 31/12/2018 | Publication on characterization of exemplar tree nut ingredients (hazelnut, walnut, almond). | Achieved |
| M1.1 | 28/02/2018 | Kick-off meeting and stakeholder workshop. | Achieved |
| M1.2 | 31/03/2018 | Ingredients sourced | Achieved |
| M1.3 | 31/05/2018 | Total protein determination completed | Achieved |
| M2.1 | 31/07/2018 | Food matrix produced | Achieved |
| M2.2 | 31/10/2018, amended to 31/03/2019 | Incurred material produced | Achieved |
| M1.4 | 31/08/2018 | 2D-page characterization completed. | Achieved |
| M3.1 | 31/08/2018, amended to 30/04/2019 | Homogeneity assessment for incurred material completed | Achieved |
| M1.5 | 31/10/2018 | Immunoblotting characterization completed | Achieved |
| M1.6 | 31/12/2018, amended to 31/03/2019 | MS profiling completed | Achieved |
| M3.2 | 31/01/2019, amended to 15/07/2019 | Stability assessment for incurred material completed | Achieved |
| M3.3 | 31/01/2019, amended to 15/06/2019 | Material characterisation completed | Achieved |
| M3.4 | 28/02/2019, amended to 01/08/2019 | Certification meeting | Achieved |
| D3.1 | 31/03/2019, amended to 10/08/2019 | Release of Reference Material Kit | Achieved |
| D4.1 | 31/03/2019, amended to 10/08/2019 |
Promotion of Reference Material Kit |
Achieved and in progress |
| D4.2 | 31/03/2019, amended to 10/08/2019 | Preparation of publication describing the production of the Reference Material. Delivery of final report to FSA. |
Achieved |