Simultaneous Detection of 13 Allergens in Thermally Processed Food Using Targeted LC-MS/MS Approach

Food allergy is a major concern for public health and food industries. Because of the large numbers of food ingredients to be tested, MS is considered an alternative to existing techniques in terms of high selectivity, sensitivity, and capability to analyze multiple allergens simultaneously. In this study, we developed the method for monitoring significant peptides derived from 13 food allergens (milk, eggs, cod, shrimp, lobster, almonds, brazil nuts, cashew nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, peanuts, wheat, and soybeans) and evaluated it in thermally processed foods (bread, cookie, fried fish, and frozen pasta). To select significant peptides to monitor, we used a bioinformatics-based approach and experimental confirmatory analysis. It was demonstrated that the developed method could detect target food ingredients from thermally processed foods successfully.