You can run allergen tests in the following substances: Gluten (cereal protein), Casein (milk protein), Beta lactoglobulin (milk protein), Lactose (milk sugar), and Sulfur dioxide (preservative). Finding allergens specific to a group of individual is significant in curing certain perennial allergies abounding in our community.
True food allergies are an immunological response to specific food proteins. Allergen testing can target proteins or the genetic material that produces the proteins (DNA).
The test method needs to be as specific as possible for the food material of concern and it should be able to detect the material of concern in as wide as possible a range of circumstances. This includes processed informs of the food, even the heat treated ones.
Since most food allergies are protein-based, it is only reasonable to have allergen tests that are protein-based. Protein-based methods, which is usually antibody based, are the ones that determine proteins characteristic of the allergenic source material, but not necessarily the allergenic proteins. On the other hand, DNA-based methods are the ones that determine a characteristic sequence of base pairs (not necessarily related to the allergenic proteins).
Most allergen testing utilizes protein-based methods (Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay – ELISA) detecting a specific sequence of amino acids (epitope).