MOLECULAR-STRUCTURE AND IMMUNOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF FOOD ALLERGENS

The number of people, especially babies and infants, plagued by food allergies has recently been on the increase, although the true prevalence of allergies caused by food is unknown. Thus, it is desirable to elucidate the mechanisms of various allergic symptoms caused by food ingestion and, more practically, to establish reliable procedures for the diagnosis and therapy of food allergies. The isolation and identification of the causative allergenic molecules in foods would considerably contribute not only to progress in such research but also to the development of hypoallergenic processing methods for the creation of special foods tolerable to allergic patients.