Shrimp allergic patients are at risk when eating mealworm proteins

摘要

Due to the imminent growth of the world population,shortage of protein sources for human consumption willarise in the near future. Alternative and sustainable proteinsources like insects, such as mealworm, are nowbeing explored for the production of food and feed.Before novel products can be launched on the marketthe assessment of food safety is vital. One of the keyaspects of food safety is the risk of the development offood allergy. Food allergies specifically have a significantimpact on the quality of life of allergic patients andtheir daily functioning, and they may even be life-threatening.TNO together with the University Medical CenterUtrecht (UMCU) developed a risk assessmentstrategy to assess the allergenicity of novel proteins, inaccordance to the European Food Safety Authority(EFSA) guidelines to assess the safety of Genetic modifiedorganisms. Using this strategy the safety of mealworm(Tenebrio molitor L.) proteins for use in humanconsumption was assessed. In this study, 15 shrimpallergic patients were tested on their allergic reaction tomealworm proteins. For this purpose different in vivo(skin prick tests) and in vitro tests (immune blot andbasophil activation) were used. In all tests a positivereaction to mealworm extracts was seen. This indicatesthat shrimp allergic patients are at risk for developingallergic reactions when consuming food containingmealworm proteins. Double blind placebo controlledfood challenge will have to confirm this in the comingmonths.