Effects of physical processing on food protein allergenicity: A focus on differences between animal and alternative proteins

In recent years, physical technologies have been widely employed to reduce food protein allergenicity due to their simplicity and stability. This paper summarizes recent research advances in these technologies, focusing on differences in their effects on allergenicity between animal and alternative proteins. The mechanisms of allergenicity reduction and the advantages and disadvantages of these technologies were compared. It was found that heating, although affording better allergenicity reduction than non-thermal treatment technologies, affects other properties of the food. Because of their higher molecular weights and more complex structures, animal proteins are less affected by physical technologies than alternative proteins. It is worth noting that there is a scarcity of existing technology to reduce the allergenicity of food proteins, and more technologies should be explored for this purpose. In addition, better allergenicity-reducing processing technologies should be designed from the perspectives of processing conditions, technological innovations, and combined processing technologies in the future.