Potential Allergenic Risks of Entomophagy

Abstract

Edible insects are a novel food source in the West, prompting the need for an assessment of their food security risks. One of the major concerns relates to their allergenic potential, as insects have a close phylogenetic relationship with crustaceans and house dust mites. Accordingly, several studies have demonstrated the occurrence of immunologic co-sensitisation between insects and crustaceans/house dust mites, with tropomyosin and arginine kinase being identified as the major cross-reacting allergens. This co-sensitisation has been described to be clinically relevant for patients allergic to crustaceans but is still controversial in the case of individuals allergic to house dust mites. Epidemiological information is still scarce, with few studies mentioning insects as causative agents of food allergy (reporting that 0.3–19.4% of food related anaphylactic reactions in Asia were caused by insects) and case reports lacking in contextual information. Besides food allergy, insects also present major risks of occupational allergy development through primary sensitisation, although it is not clear which are the responsible allergens. Therefore, several controversies exist on insects’ allergenicity but it is clear that crustacean-allergic subjects and insect rearing workers are two major risk groups for the development of food and occupational allergy, respectively.