Surprisingly, IgE cross-reactivity between the major peanut allergens Ara h 1, 2, and 3 has been reported despite very low sequence identities.We investigated the unexpected cross-reactivity between peanut major allergens.Cross-contamination of purified natural Ara h 1, 2, 3, and 6 was assessed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), Western blot test, liquid chromatog.-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and sandwich ELISA (ELISA).IgE cross-reactivity was studied with sera of peanut-allergic patients (n = 43) by ELISA and ImmunoCAP inhibition using both intact natural and recombinant allergens and synthetic peptides representing postulated Ara h 1 and Ara h 2 cross-reactive epitopes.Both purified nAra h 1 and nAra h 3 were demonstrated to contain small but significant amounts of Ara h 2 and Ara h 6 (<1%) by sandwich ELISA, SDS-PAGE/Western blot anal., and LC-MS/MS.IgE cross-inhibition between both 2S albumins and Ara h 1 and Ara h 3 was only observed when using natural purified allergens, not recombinant allergens or synthetic peptides.Apparent cross-reactivity was lost when purified nAra h 1 was pretreated under reducing conditions, suggesting that Ara h 2 and Ara h 6 contaminations may be covalently bound to Ara h 1 via disulfide interactions.True cross-reactivity of both peanut 2S albumins with Ara h 1 and Ara h 3 could not be demonstrated.Instead, cross-contamination with small quantities was shown to be sufficient to cause significant cross-inhibition that can be misinterpreted as mol. cross-reactivity.Diagnostic tests using purified nAra h 1 and nAra h 3 can overestimate their importance as major allergens as a result of the presence of contaminating 2S albumins, making recombinant Ara h 1 and Ara h 3 a preferred alternative.