• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.97-104
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• 2003

It is extremely important to destroy the antigenicity of milk proteins for dietetic treatment of infants with milk allergy. Enzymatic digestion of milk protein is not only effective for destroying antigenicity, but it also is less liable to alter the nutritive value. Bovine casein was hydrolyzed with eight different commercial proteases derived from bacterias or fungi, either individually or in combination to eliminate protein allergenicity. The average molecular weight of casein hyrdolysates determined by size exclusion chromatography is about 550${\sim}$2,300 dalton range. Antigenicity of the casein hyrdolysates was not detected by heterologous passive cutaneous anaphylaxis in guinea pig-rabbit antiserum system. The inhibition test on the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) showed that the antigenicity of casein hydrolysates is lowed up to 1/8,000 than that of intact bovine casein. As the enzyme reaction was carried out by the combination of bacterial and fungal protease, casein hydrolysates showed much lower bitterness and antigenicity. It suggests that these hydrolysates will be applied to many kinds of foods including the development of hypo-allergenic infant formula.