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Industry moves to prevent food allergies

The market for allergen-free foods has been growing for some time, but now food companies are moving to prevent food allergies from developing in the first place.

Nestlé has been a market leader in this area, and has invested in a number of companies targeting childhood allergies. Most recently, Nestlé Health Science just announced its investment in Before Brands, a Californian company that provides supplements for babies intended to desensitise them to common food allergens before they are introduced to solid foods. Nestlé already provides products for babies with allergies, such as Althéra, Alfaré and Alfamino, but this investment is its first foray into allergy prevention.

The idea of prevention is relatively new, and understanding about how allergies develop has shifted rapidly. Just a few years ago, health authorities advised parents to delay the introduction of potential allergens like eggs, cow’s milk and peanuts in their children’s diets, but the latest research suggests that the inclusion of small amounts of such foods from a very early age could have a powerful protective effect. One key study, published in 2015, found that early and frequent consumption of peanut butter led to greatly reduced risk of peanut allergy compared with total avoidance of peanuts, and advice to parents has since been reversed as a result.

Food companies are keen to capitalise on this area, as the industry approach to food allergen management has been fraught with difficulty.

In Europe, food companies must list 14 common allergens on food labels: peanuts, tree nuts, soybeans, mustard, eggs, lupin, milk, fish, cereals containing gluten, celery, sesame, sulphur dioxide, molluscs and crustaceans. But for products that do not contain allergens as intentional ingredients, current best practice is to avoid cross contamination and let consumers know if they could be present. It is a situation that leads to overcautious labelling, meaning many food allergic consumers ignore such labels and risk exposure.

Nestlé Health Science already has invested in companies like Aimmune Therapeutics, which aims to desensitise those who already have food allergies, and partnered with DBV Technologies to bring to market a skin patch test for cow’s milk allergy in infants. Other companies present in the sector include Arla Foods Ingredients, which supplies whey protein hydrolysates to help reduce the risk of food allergies in young children, and Chr Hansen, which has partnered with Prota Therapeutics in an effort to treat those with peanut allergy with a combination of probiotics and trace amounts of peanut protein.

Up to 17% of Europeans are thought to suffer from a food allergy, according to the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, with higher prevalence in children.

Meanwhile, a growing number of companies is producing allergen-free foods and drinks. According to Euromonitor International, total free from sales in Western Europe increased 11.7% in 2017, and 8.7% in Eastern Europe.