Food Science and Technology Department

 

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2017

Citation

Mol Nutr Food Res. 2018 Jan; 62(1): 1700297. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.201700297

Comments

Copyright 2017 by the authors.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

Abstract

Scope: The Soybean (Glycine max) leghemoglobin c2 (LegHb) gene was introduced into Pichia pastoris yeast for sustainable production of a heme-carrying protein, for organoleptic use in plant-based meat. The potential allergenicity and toxicity of LegHb and 17 Pichia host-proteins each representing 1% of total protein in production batches are evaluated by literature review, bioinformatics sequence comparisons to known allergens or toxins, and in vitro pepsin digestion.

Methods and results: Literature searches found no evidence of allergenicity or toxicity for these proteins. There are no significant sequence matches of LegHb to known allergens or toxins. Eleven Pichia proteins have modest identity matches to minor environmental allergens and 13 Pichia proteins have significant matches to proteins from toxic sources. Yet the matched allergens and toxins have similar matches to proteins from the commonly consumed yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, without evidence of food allergy or toxicity. The demonstrated history of safe use indicates additional tests for allergenicity and toxicity are not needed. The LegHb and Pichia sp. proteins were rapidly digested by pepsin at pH 2.

Conclusion: These results demonstrate that foods containing recombinant soy LegHb produced in Pichia sp. are unlikely to present an unacceptable risk of allergenicity or toxicity to consumers.

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