Scientists may have found a food processing method that will enable those with seafood allergies to eat prawns without triggering adverse allergy symptoms: by use of gamma radiation.

The team revealed that treating prawns with a combination of heat and irradiation significantly reduced the level of reactive proteins called allergens. They took blood from patients with shrimp allergies, added samples of treated and untreated prawn, and measured how antibodies in the blood reacted. They found that levels of 'Pen a 1', one of the major allergens, decreased 20-fold after treatment.

According to the researchers whose study was published in a recent issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, this method may be a viable alternative to genetic techniques, given that there are many who are wary of consuming GMO foods.