Majority of shrimp-allergic patients are allergic to mealworm

Henrike Broekman, MD ∗,

,

 Kitty C. Verhoeckx, PhD ∗

,

 Constance F. den Hartog Jager, BSc

,

 Astrid G. Kruizinga, PhD

,

 Marieke Pronk-Kleinjan, RN

,

 Benjamin C. Remington, PhD

,

 Carla A. Bruijnzeel-Koomen, MD, PhD

,

 Geert F. Houben, PhD

,

 André C. Knulst, MD, PhD

∗These authors contributed equally to this work.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2016.01.005

       Article Info

• Abstract
• Full Text
• References
• Supplemental Materials

The growing world population motivates the exploration of new sustainable protein sources to ensure food security. Insects such as mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) are promising candidates, with active ongoing marketing efforts within America and Europe. This warrants assessment of the potential risks. Toxicologic and microbiological risks were assessed previously,^1,2 but not the potentially allergenic risks. Pilot results³ suggest that shrimp-allergic patients might be at risk for mealworm allergy because IgE binding to tropomyosin and arginine kinase (major shellfish allergens) and sarcoplasmic calcium-binding protein and myosin light chain (minor shell fish allergens) was detected.