Sources of Peanut Allergen in Whole Chillies

Hi all,

Please share the possible sources of peanut allergen contamination in Whole chillies.

field or packhouse.

Southern US and SW some farmers routinely grow chilis and peanuts in same area and of course process in same packhouse.

if suppose the same area farmers cultivated both chillies and Peanut, anyhow we have the grading control to segregate the peanuts from the chillies. But after graded chillies we sent  500 gm samples of chilli without any peanut (physically verified) to lab for peanut allergen testing, but we got some detectable ppm of peanut protein in the 500 gm sample. How it is possible? Please clarify...

if suppose the same area farmers cultivated both chillies and Peanut, anyhow we have the grading control to segregate the peanuts from the chillies. But after graded chillies we sent  500 gm samples of chilli without any peanut (physically verified) to lab for peanut allergen testing, but we got some detectable ppm of peanut protein in the 500 gm sample. How it is possible? Please clarify...

It's probably due cross-contamination by contact ("somewhere/somehow").

if suppose the same area farmers cultivated both chillies and Peanut, anyhow we have the grading control to segregate the peanuts from the chillies. But after graded chillies we sent  500 gm samples of chilli without any peanut (physically verified) to lab for peanut allergen testing, but we got some detectable ppm of peanut protein in the 500 gm sample. How it is possible? Please clarify...

My thought would be that the grading control needs re-evaluation. You physically verified product didn't have peanut in it, so the cross-contamination (as Charles said) happened somewhere. Start at the beginning of the process and work your way through it to ensure your controls are working properly.

This sounds like a process control issue.  You should NOT have any peanuts in the chillies..............you need to start there and understand how this is happening. My guess is the harvesting units (bags/totes etc ) are not being cleaned between uses and that is the source of the peanut contamination