Allergen management as a key issue in food safety

Abstract

Current food safety development not only takes into account microbiological, physical, and chemical food hazards, but also addresses the problem of food allergy because it has become a health problem due to the increasing prevalence and complexity of modern food and its globalization. In the last two decades, huge efforts have been made to assess the risk that arises from allergenic ingredients in food products for consumers with food allergy (Mourano et al., 2014b). Nevertheless, food allergy is an increasingly prevalent global health problem in both the industrialized world and in less developed countries, where, owing to poor labeling and awareness, a major challenge may exist (Gowland and Walker, 2015).