Research carried out at the University of Padova in Italy used 15 different varieties of apple in three different trials to assess what effect shadowing (the amount of sunlight the trees received), elevation (at what height they were grown), storage and water stress (how much water they got) had on the allergenicity of the fruit.

Fuji and Brina apples were found to be the least allergenic and although the amount of water they accessed dramatically affected the size of both the trees and the fruit, it had less effect on their allergenicity than sun, elevation and storage. The amount of shadowing/sun seemed to be the most important element in reducing allergenicity.

For the full report and a discussion of the implications for apple growers.
J. Agric. Food Chem., 2008, 56 (15), pp 6707–6716

First published in July 2008

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