Even traces of food allergens
can lead to several allergenic reactions and represent a health risk,
especially if they are not mentioned on the label. Due to their duty
of care, food manufacturers often use ‘‘may contain’’ statements.
This precautionary labelling has negatively affected the confidence
of allergenic consumers in the safety of foods (Kerbach et al., 2009).
The definition of thresholds, above which labelling of a food allergen
is mandatory, would be an appropriate approach to overcome
the uncertainty of the consumers. To monitor the compliance with
these thresholds, both food industry and food safety authorities
need methods for the quantitative analysis of food allergens