The complexity in which a vast number of individuals are affected by many different foods everyday of their lives coupled with the difficulty in diagnosing these unexplained symptoms has made this key topic a rapid emerging area for scientific research.

BioSupply offers a large selection of food analytics and safety ELISA kits which are reliable, sensitive, specific and offer economical detection for many analytes. Over the last few years, many physicians have reported an increasing number of clinical symptoms for example; skin irritations, gastrointestinal dysfunctions, migraines and obesity which are the result of food allergies and sensitivities. Many individuals that have food allergies or sensitivities are found to adversely react to certain types of food and food ingredients whilst other people are able to eat these without any problems.

Enzyme allergies is one of the most important non-immunological reactions, this is due to certain enzyme deficiencies or enzyme defects which make it impossible for individuals to fully digest certain nutritional components. In other cases certain substances such as caffeine, glutamates and biogenic amines which are present in food are pharmacologically active and if this is consumed in large quantities can lead to food hypersensitivities.

The five main categories include:

1. Allergens: Generally these are proteins present in food which can lead to an allergic or in some cases life threatening reactions for sensitive individuals. In some cases even a tiny amount of the allergen is sufficient to trigger an allergic reaction and as a protection for customers, the EU directives 2003/EU was issues in 2005 which obliges food manufacturers to correctly label all ingredients that could potentially lead to an allergic reactions. Some of the common examples of these foods include: peanut, walnut, pistachio, macadamia nut, hazelnut, cashew, almond, sesame, mustard, gliadin/gluten, beta-lactoglobulin, milk, soy, ovalbumin, lupine, lysozyme, tropomyosin, egg white and fish.
2. Mycotoxins: These are usually caused by secondary metabolism products due to molds and the uptake of mycotoxins by moldy foodstuff, in some cases even a tiny amount is enough to result in mycotoxicosis. Examples include; T2-toxin, aflatoxin B1 and M1, fumonisin, deoxynivalenol and zearalenone. They can result in damaging the skin, kidneys, liver and impairment of the immune system.
3. Vitamins: These are organic compounds that need to be consumed with our daily food since our bodies are unable to produce these itself. It is important to avoid overdoses. Examples include; biotin (vitamin H), vitamin B12 and folic acid.
4. Antibiotics: These are drugs which are essential in treating animal and human bacterial infections. Examples include; penicillin, tetracycline, streptomycin, chloramphenicol and sulphonamides.
5. Histamine: A biogenic amine that is formed from the enzymatic decarboxylation of amino acid histidine. This can trigger a number of intolerance related symptoms, also there is evidence to indicate that toxic reactions are possible if high levels of histamine are consumed.

BioSupply offers a wide selection of food analytics safety assays which have been optimised to provide high specificity and sensitivity for measuring residues, constituents or even microbiological contaminants present in various foods. Our immunoassay kits are reliable and offer economical detection for many analytes.

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