Corn has been safely consumed by humans for millennia. Reports of corn food allergies are rare, and the few instances have mainly been seen in Southern Europe as secondary reactions in people allergic first to fruits, such as peaches. For the vast majority of people, corn is non-allergenic, and therefore it is not listed as one of the eight major-allergenic food groups.

Even though corn allergies rarely occur, genetically modified (called GMO) corn must be tested to make sure that the genetic modificaiton did not cause the new variety to be more allergenic than conventional corn. Lipid transfer protein (LTP) is a common protein in corn and is similar to LTP in peaches which appears to be the cause of rare food allergic reactions in corn. To accurately quantify the amount of LTP in corn, a reliable lab analysis was developed, and validated. The method was used to determine the LTP levels in a large number of corn samples grown over a two-year period in many US locations and a wide range of conventional corn varieties. Both genetic and environmental factors contributed to LTP levels being found to vary up to 5-fold. The results indicate that a broad range of LTP levels in corn have been safely consumed as food during the long history of corn cultivation. http://bit.ly/2H3knav