Food Allergies

Much has been written about food allergies in scientific journals and in the lay press, but Food Allergies: Processing Technologies for Allergenicity Reduction approaches the issue of food allergies from an industrial processing rather than a clinical perspective.

Indeed, industrial food processing technologies can have many beneficial effects to obtain various food products and to preserve foods from physical, chemical and microbiological alterations. However, processing technologies, including thermal and non‑thermal technologies, can also alter the allergenic properties of food proteins.

This book provides an authoritative source of information on the relationship between food processing technologies and food allergens with a greater variety of studied allergens including peanuts, tree nuts, cow’s milk, eggs, sesame, lupine, soy, wheat, mustard, mushroom, fish and shellfish, as well as the importance of processing these when producing hypoallergenic foods.

Key Features:

• Presents food allergies with recent advances and statistics concerning prevalence, physiopathologic mechanism, diagnosis and anaphylaxis
• Discusses food allergies in the food industry and investigates the effect of processing on allergenicity of foods during manufacturing
• Provides food processing and promising technologies to produce hypoallergenic food with high quality
• Covers the allergenic effect of different food additives with an investigation of cross‑reaction risks

This unique book is an indispensable guide for allergic patients, production managers, scientists and nutritionists within the food industry as well as covering a range of critical topics in this area for all those concerned with understanding and managing food allergies.

Dr. Roua Lajnaf received the Engineer and MSc degrees in Biological Engineering from National Engineering School of Sfax, Tunisia, in 2011 and 2012, respectively, and the PhD degree in biochemistry and Food Technology from University of Montpellier, France, in 2017. Her areas of expertise include the purification of milk proteins from different mammalian species and the study of the effect of different food processinf technologies (heat treatment, high pressure, acidification, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation) on their properties, including techno-functional properties and allergenicity.

Dr. Lajnaf has worked in academics as well as in Food Engineering Processes at universities of Sfax, Monastir and Tunis El-Manar in Tunisia teaching students about different fields including food technology, management quality and nutritional pathologies : food allergies. She has participated in numerous conferences, seminars, and congresses and has authored many research papers, review articles, book chapters, books and patents on different subjects in food engineering and food allergies. She is also a reviewer for various journals in food biochemistry and toxicology. She was the lead Guest Editor for many journals in nutrition and allergy sciences.

Dr. Roua Lajnaf was awarded a L’Oréal UNESCO For Women in Science Prize in 2022, in the field of Biological Sciences for the invention of suitable alternative to children with cow's milk protein.