ISPAM Advisory Panel-Food Allergen

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Challenges for Implementation of
Allergen Testing
• Resources
• People
• Space (sometimes no analytical lab available in plants)
• Time (time for running assays and obtaining results)
• Total turnaround time must be quick
• Cost of test (kits)-cannot be cost prohibitive
• Kit availability-As allergen awareness increases, potentially
demand for test kits will also increase. Kits have to be
readily available with little to no lead time.
• Assays not available for every allergen
Challenges for Implementation of
Allergen Testing (continued)…
• What to test and are all test methods appropriate for these
applications?
• Food contact surface swabs
• Environmental swabs
• CIP rinse waters
• Finished product samples
• General knowledge gap
• What result, after allergen swabbing, indicates that
equipment is safe for use? Is it zero?
• Does 10mg of egg allergen after swabbing 1,500
square cm of a food contact surface represent a real
health risk to consumers?