A recent review showed more than 500,000 people in Australia are known to have a food allergy, with many more going undiagnosed. Food manufacturers protect those with food allergies by clearly labelling their products with a list of ingredients which may cause adverse reactions. Testing for the presence of food allergens can help ensure food manufacturers, that an unlabelled, and potentially dangerous allergen, did not make its way into food products.

Rowe Scientific Pty Ltd is a distributor for Neogen, who manufactures a wide range of antibody-based assays which are validated for detecting low levels of target allergens in a wide variety of food and environmental samples. The qualitative Reveal® and Reveal 3-D test kits are suitable for a wide variety of allergen tests. These assays can rapidly detect low levels of allergen in a wide variety of food and environmental samples, utilising an easy to use methodology.

The quantitative Veratox® and BioKits tests provide numerical measurements and are validated for quantifying low levels of allergen in food and rinse samples. They can also provide qualitative results on environmental swabs. The number one case of global food recalls are undeclared or improperly labelled food allergens. Costs of non-compliance can be significant while testing only takes a few minutes and can cost very little in comparison. Do your allergen control systems provide you with confidence? It is required by law for food manufacturing facilities to ensure food allergens, as a food safety hazard, are properly managed and effectively controlled.

Testing can play an important part in validating and verifying food allergen control plans.

The Reveal 3-D tests can be used to screen for the presence of low levels of allergens in environmental samples (swabs and clean-in-place rinses) virtually anywhere. The Reveal 3-D tests feature a unique overload line designed to prevent over-saturation (hook effect) and alert the user of a high positive result. Sample preparation and testing takes 5 minutes, making them excellent choices for on-site food allergen control. Each kit contains everything needed for testing ten samples. To view a list of Neogen Reveal 3-D kits on our webstore, simply click on the graphic below.