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Bioassays - Bioassays in food safety - Additives

4 important questions on Bioassays - Bioassays in food safety - Additives

What are the types of bioassays you need to perform on additives (E-numbers)?

Require extensive safety testing using in vitro and in vivo bioassays before they can be added to food
In vivo assays for defining target tissue and dose response curves for setting safety limits (NOAEL, BMDL for defining the ADI)
In vitro bioassays to test for absence of genotoxicity

What is the Ames Test with Salmonella typhimurium?

The salmonella is changed so it can not grow on the medium. If a mutation happens it will be able to grow on the medium. So growth means mutation, means genotoxic.

What are the possible bioassays for allergenicity?

Double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenges (Human vollenteers)
Measure total (or specific) IgE levels with Elisa bioassay (human volunteers)
Skin prick test (human volunteers)
Ex vivo histamine release

How does ex vivo histamine release go?

Based on the release of histamine by mast cells of actively sensitized guinea pigs
One s.c. injection of the allergen and human serum albumin (HSA) as reference (standard) allergen.
Three weeks later mast cells are isolated, challenged in vitro with of the test allergen and HSA