Eating insects could end up bugging people allergic to shellfish

Andreas Lopata from James Cook University was one of the lead researchers on a project to examine whether shellfish allergies translated to consumption of insects, specifically crickets.

Professor Lopata said analysis found 20 proteins in cricket products that were already linked to shellfish allergies.

“We took these proteins and analysed them against our database of 100 patients with shellfish allergies, some adults, some kids,” he said.

“What these results show is that if a shellfish-allergic patient has a reaction to a particular protein, these people are also at high risk of reacting to the same protein in crickets.”

Professor Lopata said the finding had implications for the insect protein industry, especially around food labelling.

“We don’t have any test kits available to test for insect [allergens], so even if the insect is part of the ingredients, we wouldn’t be able to measure it,” he said.

“This has important ramifications for food labelling – there should be clear labels on products containing insect proteins that if you have a shellfish allergy you should also not eat these products.”

The research team included scientists from James Cook University, Edith Cowan University and Singapore’s National Agency for Science Technology and Research.

The research co-lead, ECU’s Michelle Colgrave, said the fact some people were allergic to insect protein was not a surprise, but it had not needed to be considered previously.

“We know that in some regions of the world where they have a higher prevalence of eating a food, then they have a higher rate of allergic reactions to that food as well,” Professor Colgrave said.

“Insects have been eaten for thousands of years by literally billions of people on a daily basis, so we don’t expect to see a massive increase in the prevalence of insect allergies, but we need to make sure that people are aware that if they do suffer from a shellfish allergy that they should also avoid some insect products.”

Loading

The researchers are expanding their scope to other sources of insect protein such as mealworms, to see if they also have allergy-causing proteins.

They warn there could be people who are allergic specifically to insect protein without an existing allergic reaction to other foods, which would only become apparent when it was eaten more widely.

Shellfish allergies are found in about 3 per cent of the global population, meaning they could still be a viable food source as long as they were labelled correctly.

“There are hundreds of foods that contain allergens, so it’s not something that is unique to insects, we just need to ensure people with shellfish allergies understand that insects could also pose a problem for them,” Professor Colgrave said.

The research has been published in the journal Food Chemistry.