What makes a food protein unsafe?
With a society increasingly demanding alternative protein food sources, modernised strategies for evaluating the safety of novel proteins are needed. These strategies must address any potential adverse effects novel proteins might pose to human health. Current frameworks for protein safety assessmen...
| Autores: | , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2026 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/418639 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/418639 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Protein safety Risk assessment Toxicity Allergenicity |
| Sumario: | With a society increasingly demanding alternative protein food sources, modernised strategies for evaluating the safety of novel proteins are needed. These strategies must address any potential adverse effects novel proteins might pose to human health. Current frameworks for protein safety assessment are largely adapted from chemical risk assessment methodologies. Unlike small molecules, proteins are large, folded macromolecules with specific sequence motifs and immunogenic potential, and so must be assessed with tools tailored to those characteristics. Identifying and understanding which of these features are undesirable can lay the groundwork for accurately predicting potential adverse effects of novel proteins. There is a clear need for the development of risk assessment strategies specifically designed for proteins, grounded in biological relevance and supported by current knowledge about proteins and modern bioinformatics pipelines (e.g., sequence‐motif screening, machine-learning models) and advances in structural biology. This review offers insights on common molecular features and properties of known hazardous proteins, and their potential systematic application in the safety evaluations of food proteins. |
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