OAKLAND, CALIF. — A new facility, recent research and formulations with seeds are intended to make life more enjoyable for consumers with nut allergies.

Voyage Foods, Oakland, Calif., plans to open a 284,000-square-foot facility in Mason, Ohio, to manufacture cocoa-free chocolate, nut-free spreads and bean-free coffee.

Voyage Foods uses a seed blend of roasted sunflower kernels and grape seeds to make a peanut-free spread and a hazelnut-free spread.

“We really looked at what makes peanut butter peanut butter, what makes hazelnut hazelnut,” said Adam Maxwell, founder and chief executive officer of Voyage Foods. “A lot of those flavors do not exist in the natural world.”

Peanut butter tastes the way it does because of the processing it goes through, he said.

“A lot of our work is mapping the reaction chemistry,” Maxwell said. “How does peanut butter taste like peanut butter from something (peanuts) that doesn’t taste like peanut butter?”

Voyage Foods now has several patents, mostly focused on formulation, Maxwell said. The peanut-free spreads and hazelnut-free spreads may be found at retail, and they are free of the top nine allergens (peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, fish, wheat, crustacean shellfish, soybeans and sesame).

Keeping allergens out of the manufacturing facility is vital.

“Step one is really, how to make sure allergens don’t get into the plant,” Maxwell said. “That starts with people, making sure the teams there are very much aware of that and care about that.”

New workers sign a document saying they will not bring any allergens into the facility, even in their lunches.

Voyage Foods asks ingredient suppliers if they have nuts in their facilities. If they do, Voyage Foods wants to know how they segregate the ingredients. Voyage Foods does not accept supply unless it passes high-risk allergen tests.

While the nut-free spreads appeal to consumers with allergies, Voyage Foods also makes cocoa-free chocolate and bean-free coffee.

The US Food and Drug Administration lists 22 types of tree nuts, said Xi Chen, PhD, director of the SGS food allergen testing laboratory in Carson, Calif. Testing for many or all of them is potentially expensive and time-consuming.

“Scientists need to develop rapid screening technique to fast detect the whole tree nut group,” he said.

Insufficient cleaning, mislabeling and ineffective testing all may lead to food recalls due to allergens. Unintended contamination is not uncommon, Chen said.

“Many companies receive, store, process and pack regular and allergen-free product in the same production line or facility,” he said. “Contaminated raw material, mislabeling, insufficient cleaning between allergen and non-allergen batches, or flawed workflow design could cause unlabeled allergen into their product.

He added, “As the third-party testing laboratory, we provide fast and reliable allergen testing services to food manufacturers, distributors and importers. We can test food itself as well as environmental samples like water and swab to prevent the contamination by the circumstances mentioned above.”

Cargill, Minneapolis, offers plant proteins that may help replace tree nuts and peanuts in nut-free bakery and snack products, said Brad Wright, PhD, bakery and snacks R&D manager, but choices will depend on the application.

“If the aim is an alternative to a nut spread, we might use our plant proteins, along with oils and other ingredients, to achieve the appropriate viscosity and functionality,” he said. “A traditional peanut butter provides a creamy mouthfeel. A plant protein-based alternative will need to deliver a similar result. If it’s too thick, it won’t meet consumers’ sensory expectations. If it’s too thin, it won’t spread properly.

“It’s also important to consider the plant protein’s water- and oil-binding capacities. If it can’t hold the oil in the system, it will separate. While nut butters tend to naturally have all the ingredients to hold things together, plant proteins alone may not.”

Replacing a nut butter in a sandwich cookie filling requires different functionality when compared to something that will be baked, Wright said.

“Even within the snack bar space, you’ll face different challenges,” he said “In a trail mix-type bar, you may be replacing peanut butter delivered in a compound coating or inclusion. That gives you more flexibility because there are other ingredients in the compound to help with functionality.

“On the other hand, if you’re replacing a peanut butter filling in a soft, baked bar, that’s a very different ask. It will need to withstand higher temperatures, so we’d look at pairing plant proteins with different fat systems, stabilizers and emulsifiers to provide the necessary functionality.”

Work at Ayass Bioscience, Frisco, Texas, has focused on neutralizing peanut allergies. Researchers there discovered and developed AYA22A aptamers, which are molecular compounds that target and bind to the key allergens responsible for the most peanut allergy reactions in the United States: peanut proteins Ara h1 and Ara h2. The aptamers prevent the allergens from triggering the body’s allergenic response.

“This is a safe, non-invasive solution that doesn’t require genetic modification to the peanuts or traditional immunotherapy for the patient,” said Mohamad Ayass, MD, the founder of Ayass Bioscience and a pulmonary and critical care specialist. “This could mean the end of strict peanut avoidance for allergy sufferers, offering them freedom and peace of mind with the end goal of eliminating the unnecessary stress, death and even costs associated with peanut allergies.”

The company’s Ayass Laboratory includes an aptamer center established in 2015 that houses a computational biology department for designing aptamers for molecular detection and therapy.

Peanut allergies affect up to 2% of the pediatric population, according to Food Allergy Research & Education. About 20% of children with peanut allergies outgrow the condition over time. Peanuts are not the same as tree nuts like almonds, cashews, pistachios, walnuts and pecans, but about 40% of children with tree nut allergies have an allergy to peanuts.