06
December 2017

LGC’s expertise features in special edition of international journal

Experts from LGC’s Government Chemist programme were invited to contribute to a special edition on food allergen analysis in the highly respected Journal of the AOAC INTERNATIONAL.

AOAC INTERNATIONAL (formerly Association of Official Analytical Chemists) is a not-for-profit association founded in 1884 as a forum for microbiological and chemical standard methods used globally to promote trade and to facilitate public health and safety.

The journal’s special edition on food allergens was guest edited by Bert Popping and Carmen Diaz-Amigo and contains three papers from the Government Chemist team.

Michael Walker, Malcolm Burns and colleagues describe the science behind the ground breaking analysis for allergens by ELISA, Molecular Biology, and Protein Mass Spectrometry during the investigation of the almond and mahaleb incidents in 2015. Michael and co-authors Hazel Gowland and John Points discuss managing food allergens in the UK retail supply chain in a second paper. Milena Quaglia, Kate Groves and Adam Cryar assess recovery of food allergens from solid processed matrices applying SI (International System of Units) traceably quantified milk protein solutions and a novel extraction method in a third paper.

Other topics in this edition include food allergen labelling and regulation, quantitative ELISA, targeted and novel mass spectrometry approaches to allergen analysis and analytical devices for use by consumers. The journal is available now on the J AOAC International website.