The Almond (Prunus dulcis L.) belongs to a group of foods, commonly referred to as “tree nuts”. This group of foods is a significant source of allergens and Almonds are a common cause of food allergy. Consequently, there is a need for a sensitive and reliable test for the detection of specific tree nut allergens in foods. Any such test must be able to detect a heat stable protein component, otherwise false negative results could occur with samples that have been highly heat treated. A specific Almond protein was identified from high temperature treatments to be very heat stable and is used as the Almond protein indicator for the ELISA SYSTEMS Almond Residue ELISA.

Food manufacturers protect those with food allergies by clearly labelling their products with a list of ingredients. Testing for the presence of components ensures food manufacturers that an unlabelled and potentially dangerous ingredient did not make its way unintentionally into a product during manufacture.