Technology that detects allergens in food products has been recognised by the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST) in its annual awards ceremony.
The 49th Annual Convention, held this week at Brisbane’s Exhibition and Convention Centre, gave an award to The Allergen Bureau for its VITAL Online platform.
The web-based calculator reviews the allergen status of all ingredients in a product, and the processing conditions that could impact on the allergen status.
The technology offers the global food industry a standardised allergen risk assessment tool that incorporates new allergen science as it comes to hand, and provides secure intellectual property data storage for manufacturers.
The VITAL program was developed by the Allergen Bureau as an initiative of the Australian Food and Grocery Council Allergen Forum, and has been successfully commercialised through a subscription access service.
The Jack Kefford Award for Best Paper was the other major prize of the night, and was awarded to Divya Eratte of Federation University Australia’s Department of Food and Nutritional Science School of Applied and Biomedical Science.
Eratte’s 2015 paper, Co-encapsulation and characterisation of omega-3 fatty acids and probiotic bacteria in whey protein isolate-gum Arabic complex coacervates, was published in the Journal of Functional Foods and documents the first attempt to develop a single microcapsule capable of delivering omega-3 fatty acids and probiotic bacteria together in one capsule.
The microcapsules are expected to have wider applications throughout the nutraceutical and functional food industry.
