Occurrence of milk and egg allergens in foodstuffs in Canada

Peanut and hazelnut occurrence as allergens in foodstuffs with precautionary allergen labeling in Canada

“…The protein ranges found for peanuts and hazelnuts with PAL were relatively low compared with milk 21 , 22 but were similar to most studies 6 , 9 , 11 , 13 – 15 . The protein range found for both allergens were 0.6 to 28.1 ppm peanut proteins and 0.4 to 2167 ppm for hazelnut proteins.…”

“…The highest hazelnut concentration was found in a chocolate bar where all three lots analyzed contained hazelnuts (2167, 9, and 45 ppm hazelnut proteins). According to these findings, and as seen in another publication from the same group 22 , heterogenous cross-contamination can occur within a same product between different industrial productions. It is likely that if some allergic consumers have a risky behavior, they may encounter foods with low and high allergen concentrations (>1000 ppm) which will likely trigger objective allergic reactions.…”

“…The occurrence of peanuts and hazelnuts was higher in the chocolate products category, especially for hazelnuts, since 62/78 positive samples were European chocolates. Milk is still the allergen with the highest occurrence in dark chocolate, and chocolate (in general) is still the most problematic food in regards to allergen cross-contamination 9 , 21 , 22 . Indeed, chocolate is a very difficult to clean matrix since wet cleaning is not practiced because of microbiological (notably possible contamination with Salmonella spp .)…”

“…The principal selection criterion was that the product needed to have a PAL for peanuts and/or tree nuts. Some products with broader PAL statements previously analyzed for milk and/or eggs in a previous occurrence study from the same authors 22 were analyzed for peanuts and hazelnuts if those products had a PAL for peanuts, hazelnuts and/or tree nuts. Products with allergen-free claims (peanut-free and/or nut-free) were also investigated to confirm the veracity of the label and absence of allergen.…”

Spent fowl as a source of unintentional egg proteins exposure in Canadian food products

“…Still, PAL is currently widely used by FBOs which raises concerns about its reliability ( DunnGalvin et al, 2015 ). To illustrate, a study on the occurrence of allergens in products with PAL sold in Canada ( Manny et al, 2021a ) observed that only 7% of products with PAL for eggs contained detectable concentrations of eggs. Spent fowls, defined as “laying hens at the end of egg production or breeders at the end of breeding production” by the Canadian chicken licensing regulations ( Government of Canada, 2002 ), are not primarily used for their meat, but they can be used in processed products when their productivity declines.…”