Quantitative Risk Assessment Relating to the Inadvertent Presence of Peanut Allergens in Various Food Products

Since 2005, European food regulations require major allergens, including peanut, to be declared on the label where the allergen is intentionally present in the food. However, even if not mentioned in the list of ingredients, peanut allergen may be inadvertently present in a large range of packaged food and consequently may affect many peanut allergic individuals. This work is an exercise in quantifying the allergic risk for peanut allergic individuals in France when exposed to food products that may contain low level of peanuts due to cross-contamination. This quantification is based on a probabilistic approach published by Rimbaud et al. in 2010 (Rimbaud et al. 2010). Food products analysed for the possible presence of peanut traces in scientific literature were selected. For each foodstuff, the allergic risk associated with their consumption was estimated using the French individual food consumption survey, representative of the general French population. An internet survey on the attitudes of peanut-allergic individuals toward food precautionary labelling was conducted. For three foodstuffs, the allergic risk was then refined integrating the information on specific food behaviours of French allergic individuals. Considering the mean probability, inadvertent presence of peanuts was identified in 20% to 37% of products. Adults were exposed to up to 12.5 mg of peanut protein on 97.5% of their eating occasions. The mean risk of reaction ranged from 0.2% to 2.4%. Considering eating occasions for all the products, 1.5% of the peanut-allergic adults would have at least one allergic reaction in a week. In undertaking this modelling exercise, we have demonstrated the benefits of integrating all available information to underpin decision making in the area of food allergen cross-contamination. We have also highlighted the need to generate more data to further refine the risk assessment for the benefit of allergic consumers.