The peanut is an important crop grown on over 21 million hectares worldwide. Although peanuts have had an adverse image due to their content in saturated fatty acids, it is important to mention they also are an excellent source of protein, vitamins, and minerals for human nutrition. In addition, peanuts contain relevant bioactive constituents that can provide a wide range of health benefits. Unfortunately, peanuts are also one, if not, the most allergenic vegetables and the most common food-related cause of IgE-mediated allergic reactions, mainly in westernised countries. This book will present an up-to-date overview regarding peanut composition, physical characteristics and bioactive properties. The second part will cover peanut and legume allergen characteristics, together with their prevalence. In addition, the therapeutic strategies to treat peanut allergy and the problem regarding the cross-reactivity of peanut and other allergens will be discussed.

"Infogest" (Improving Health Properties of Food by Sharing our Knowledge on the Digestive Process) is an EU COST action/network in the domain of Food and Agriculture that will last for 4 years from April 4, 2011. Infogest aims at building an open international network of institutes undertaking multidisciplinary basic research on food digestion gathering scientists from different origins (food scientists, gut physiologists, nutritionists...). The network gathers 70 partners from academia, corresponding to a total of 29 countries. The three main scientific goals are: Identify the beneficial food components released in the gut during digestion; Support the effect of beneficial food components on human health; Promote harmonization of currently used digestion models Infogest meetings highlighted the need for a publication that would provide researchers with an insight into the advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of respective in vitro and ex vivo assays to evaluate the effects of foods and food bioactives on health. Such assays are particularly important in situations where a large number of foods/bioactives need to be screened rapidly and in a cost effective manner in order to ultimately identify lead foods/bioactives that can be the subject of in vivo assays. The book is an asset to researchers wishing to study the health benefits of their foods and food bioactives of interest and highlights which in vitro/ex vivo assays are of greatest relevance to their goals, what sort of outputs/data can be generated and, as noted above, highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the various assays. It is also an important resource for undergraduate students in the 'food and health' arena.