Europrevall
Summary of the EuroPrevall Project

Project Summary

EuroPrevall is a multi-disciplinary research project looking at “The prevalence cost and basis of food allergy in Europe”. The project started in June 2005 and comes to an end in December 2009 although many of the publications arising from the project will still be in the process of being prepared. EuroPrevall has been funded by the European Union and is the largest ever project on food allergy funded by the EU with a budget of over €14m. The project has been coordinated by Clare Mills at the Institute of Food Research in the UK and has 67 member organisations in 24 countries with over 250 personnel contributing to the project. The partners are primarily based in Europe with 17 European member states involved represented in the project but there are also partners from Siberia, India and China, giving the project a global spectrum of cultures, eating habits, and environments. This website contains more information on some of the key objectives of the project and those involved in delivering it.

Much of the research undertaken has focused on characterising the patterns and prevalence of food allergies across Europe in infants, children and adults, through the EuroPrevall Birth Cohort and community surveys. However, the project has also investigated the impact food allergy has on the quality of life and its economic cost associated with food allergies and has developed improved diagnostic techniques reducing the need for food challenge test, as well as investigating how processing and the food matrix affect allergenic potential.

It is EuroPrevall’s aim that by integrating information and developing tools for the use of European food allergy scientists, health professionals, food and biotech industries, and consumers, that causes of food allergy can become better understood, diagnosis of food allergy can become swifter and the quality of life of food allergy sufferers improved.

The EuroPrevall research falls into five different themes, each with its own objectives and work packages but at the same time impacting on the research done in the other themes. More details of the specific research goals are available in Project Objectives. Alternatively a scientific paper summarising EuroPrevall has been published: "The Prevalence, Cost and Basis of Food Allergy" Mills et al.