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Allergy and Intolerance Prevalance in the UK

Approximately 1-2% of adults in the UK have a food allergy and 5-8% of children (Pawankar R et al., 2013)
Many people with food allergy also have asthma, which can make allergic reactions more severe if not controlled by medication (Food Standards Agency, 2015)
About 1% of people in the UK have coeliac disease (Food Standards Agency, 2016)
Each year there are around 20 fatalities from anaphylaxis in the UK (Pumphrey, 2000)
78% of fatalities are people who have also been diagnosed with asthma (Turner et al., 2015)

Food Labelling

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is responsible for monitoring and assessing food allergens across Europe.

There are 14 foods which must be labelled and identified as ingredients on all pre-packed food:

Cereals containing gluten: wheat, spelt, Khorasan wheat, rye, barley, oats

Crustaceans: prawns, crabs, lobster, crayfish

Eggs

Fish

Peanuts

Soybeans

Milk

Nuts: almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pecan nuts, brazil nuts, pistachio nuts, macadamia nuts

Celery including celeriac

Mustard

Sesame

Sulphur dioxide/sulphites – where added and at a level above 10mg/kg in the finished product. This can be used as a preservative in dried fruit

Lupin: lupin seeds, flour, can be found in types of bread, pastries and pasta

Molluscs: clams, mussels, whelks, oysters, snails

Useful Links

IgE Testing

The NHS use IgE blood testing as well as skin prick tests, patch tests and food challenge testing

IgG4 Testing

Clinical relevance of IgG antibodies against food antigens in Crohn’s disease: a double-blind cross-over diet intervention study

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20130407
Food elimination based on IgG antibodies in irritable bowel syndrome: a randomised controlled trial

http://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/53/10/1459.full.pdf
Time to reconsider the clinical value of immunoglobulin G4 to foods?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18839470