Food allergies - what is there to worry about?

Why are there variations in the occurrence of allergic disease around Europe and how do you manage known allergens in the food chain?

Concerns about food allergies have increased over the last 20 years, with tragic incidents of fatal reactions, often involving young people eating foods like peanuts. The lack of good quality data on how many people suffer from food allergies, which foods they react to, how much of a food can cause a problem, has been hampering the development of effective management strategies to allow patients with allergies a better quality of life.
These issues have been addressed through the EuroPrevall project, which is looking at allergies in people all throughout Europe. Data has been collected on doses that trigger reactions, which allows the management of allergens in foods more effectively in the future and minimize the use of precautionary labels like “may contain”.

The studying is also helping to validate novel methods for diagnosing food allergies and assessing the burden this disease places on allergy sufferers and their communities. The new information coming from EuroPrevall will fill many of the gaps in our knowledge but important questions remain to be addressed. One is to discover the reasons for the variations in the prevalence of allergic disease around Europe and a second is how to integrate data into effective management strategies for the food industry, managing known allergens in the food chain, as well as undertaking effective risk assessments with allergens in new foods.

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