Research Advances in Hen’s Egg Allergen and Techniques for Reducing Its Allergenicity

Hen’s eggs are delicious in taste, have high nutritional value, are easily absorbed by the human body, being an important food source for humans and a low-cost raw material for food processing. However, eggs are one of the most common food allergens, and the incidence of egg allergy among infants and young children is the second highest next only to milk and has gradually risen in recent years, which not only causes great physical and mental pain and living burdens for allergy sufferers, but also poses considerable safety risks to the food processing industry. Identification of egg allergens and their epitopes, as well as development of eco-friendly and efficient techniques for allergenicity reduction has become a focal research area in the global food science community. This article elaborates on the major egg allergens and their epitopes, and summarizes the effects of physical, chemical and biological allergenicity reduction techniques as well as their combination on reducing the allergenicity of egg allergens, with the aim of providing new ideas for the development of technologies for reducing the allergenicity of egg allergens and the utilization of egg resources.