Food Allergy

Food related symptoms are an important cause of morbidity and occasionally mortality in the western world and is likely to be important in other countries in the coming decades. Food Allergy (FA) should be approached scientifically. Only this approach will help children and parents suitably and will avoid useless testing, useless and dangerous interventions (diets) and useless spending of money. The true prevalence of FA has been difficult to establish. Any aberrant reaction after consumption of a food or food additive is classified as an adverse food reaction, which may be immune mediated or non-immune mediated. Immune mediated adverse food reactions are called food allergy or food hypersensitivity and non-immune mediated adverse food reactions are called food intolerance such as lactose intolerance. The prevalence of food allergy has been increasing at a far more rapid pace than changes observed in the human genome.