Summary of the ACS symposium on Advances in Food Allergen Detection

A symposium titled "Advances in Food Allergen Detection" was held at the 243rd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in March 2012 in San Diego, CA, and was sponsored by the ACS Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The purpose of the symposium was to convene the leaders in the food allergen analysis field for presentations on, and discussions of, the state of the art, new developments, and critical challenges in the detection and quantitation of allergenic proteins in foods. Twenty-five presentations were delivered by speakers representing academic, government, and industrial institutions in 10 countries. The presentations covered all aspects of food allergens, including a historical progress review, regulatory policies, clinical practices, food-processing effects, food production equipment cross-contamination and cleaning, and the performance of several food allergen analytical strategies and technologies. This paper is intended to provide a brief summary of the presentations as well as a record of the proceedings of the symposium, which was deemed a great success in advancing food allergen analysis.