Jun 2005
Shell fish Allergies?
June, 2005 Filed in: Wine making
I am allergic to shell fish and I notice that chitosan, one of the clearing agents is made from seashells can I still drink the wine? What is Chitosan?
Tim Vandergrift, Technical Services Manager of Winexpert, makers of our Chai Maison, Vintners Reserve, Selection, Island Mist and Barons beer kits has answered this commonly asked question in an informative matter. So we have inserted his response to this question.
Chitosan is a long-chain sucrose polymer, structured much like polyester (of all things!). It’s not a protein at all, so it can’t provoke an allergic reaction of any sort. (Allergic reactions are the immune system response to the presence of foreign protein chains. No protein chain, no reaction). Chitosan is derived from the shells of lobsters and shrimp, but the way it is processed ensures that any proteins or partial protein chains are destroyed and eliminated. The shells are ground to a powder and then boiled in a high-caustic solution (pH 13.5+).
After the first boil the sucrose polymers are harvested, purified, and then boiled again, to ensure that no possible level of protein can survive. This precaution is used because Chitosan is a common processing agent in municipal water supplies: turbid water cannot be effectively sanitised with chlorine or chloramines, and has to be cleared of turbidity first. Chitosan is very effective, but of course if you’re going to be adding it to a municipal water supply, you need to be sure it won’t provoke a reaction in the general population. Chitosan is also sold as a dietary aid, both in Canada and in the USA. (Claims have been made that it binds to fat in the intestines, preventing caloric uptake. I tried it, and it didn’t work for me. Too bad!) The USFDA has approved Chitosan for general use without an allergy warning, something it could not do if Chitosan were implicated in allergic reactions. The only people who need to be concerned about Chitosan are Jews who observe a kosher diet, and consider shellfish treyf (unclean). They can substitute isinglass, but not gelatin, as all winemaking gelatin is derived from swine---another treyf animal.
Hope this clears things up.
Tim Vandergrift, Technical Services Manager of Winexpert, makers of our Chai Maison, Vintners Reserve, Selection, Island Mist and Barons beer kits has answered this commonly asked question in an informative matter. So we have inserted his response to this question.
Chitosan is a long-chain sucrose polymer, structured much like polyester (of all things!). It’s not a protein at all, so it can’t provoke an allergic reaction of any sort. (Allergic reactions are the immune system response to the presence of foreign protein chains. No protein chain, no reaction). Chitosan is derived from the shells of lobsters and shrimp, but the way it is processed ensures that any proteins or partial protein chains are destroyed and eliminated. The shells are ground to a powder and then boiled in a high-caustic solution (pH 13.5+).
After the first boil the sucrose polymers are harvested, purified, and then boiled again, to ensure that no possible level of protein can survive. This precaution is used because Chitosan is a common processing agent in municipal water supplies: turbid water cannot be effectively sanitised with chlorine or chloramines, and has to be cleared of turbidity first. Chitosan is very effective, but of course if you’re going to be adding it to a municipal water supply, you need to be sure it won’t provoke a reaction in the general population. Chitosan is also sold as a dietary aid, both in Canada and in the USA. (Claims have been made that it binds to fat in the intestines, preventing caloric uptake. I tried it, and it didn’t work for me. Too bad!) The USFDA has approved Chitosan for general use without an allergy warning, something it could not do if Chitosan were implicated in allergic reactions. The only people who need to be concerned about Chitosan are Jews who observe a kosher diet, and consider shellfish treyf (unclean). They can substitute isinglass, but not gelatin, as all winemaking gelatin is derived from swine---another treyf animal.
Hope this clears things up.