Food allergies

Food allergy and food intolerance are both types of ‘food sensitivity’. When someone has a food allergy, their immune system reacts to a particular food as if it isn’t safe. This reaction can make them very ill. People can be allergic to one or more foods.

If someone has a severe food allergy, this can cause a life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis (pronounced ‘anna-fill-axis’). Anaphylaxis affects the whole body, often within minutes of eating the food.

Food intolerance doesn’t involve the immune system and is generally not life-threatening. But if you eat a food you are intolerant to, this could make you feel ill or affect your long-term health.

Symptoms of an allergic reaction

The symptoms of an allergic reaction can vary and the reactions can be more or less severe on different occasions. Even if you try very hard to avoid the food that you are allergic to, you may still eat it by accident.

Generally, you won’t experience all of the symptoms at the same time and you should bear in mind that some of the symptoms of an allergic reaction can also be symptoms of other illnesses.

The most common symptoms of an allergic reaction include:

• coughing dry, itchy throat and tongue
• itchy skin or rash
• nausea and feeling bloated
• diarrhoea and/or vomiting
• wheezing and shortness of breath
• welling of the lips and throat
• runny or blocked nose sore
• red and itchy eyes
• faintness and collapse

Staff knowledge is essential

If you have responsibility for a catering or other food business, it is essential that staff have an understanding of food allergy and intolerance. They need to know how to assist allergy and intolerance sufferers to choose an appropriate dish from the menu. They also need to know what to do to in the event of a reaction.

One way to update staff is to revisit their food hygiene qualifications. Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) food safety qualifications now include allergy information.

In House Food Safety in Catering courses can keep you and your team up to date on allergies and other food safety information. The CIEH recommends that qualifications should be updated at least every three years – so if it has been some time since your team received training – now could be a good time.

Why people get food allergy

We don't know exactly why some people have a food allergy and others don't. But someone is more likely to develop a food allergy if they have a parent, brother or sister with an allergy of any type.

Children under three years old are more likely to develop allergies than adults. Many food allergies begin in childhood but disappear as the child gets older. However, some people never outgrow their allergy, and others develop a food allergy as adults.

Eating habits, for example how often a person has eaten a particular food, are also thought to be important. This might be why allergies to particular foods are more common in countries where they are eaten a lot, for example, fish allergy in Scandinavian countries, rice allergy in Japan and peanut allergy in the US. The way a food is prepared may also be important. For example, people with peanut allergy can react to smaller amounts of roasted peanuts than raw or boiled peanuts.

But eating habits don't seem to be the whole story. For example, peanut allergy is either very rare or unheard of in Indonesia and parts of Africa, even though peanuts are commonly eaten in these countries. Some experts believe that allergy is now more common in some countries than others because of lifestyle. People in more affluent westernised countries seem to be more likely to develop all types of allergy than people in developing countries.

The number of people who suffer from food allergy in developed countries seems to have increased in recent years, but we don't have definite information about this. If food allergy has been increasing, this would match recent increases in allergic diseases such as asthma, eczema and hay-fever.

We don't know exactly how many people in the UK have a food allergy. About 20 to 30% believe they are intolerant to one or more foods. However, tests show that only about 1 to 2% of the adult population in the UK has a food allergy - about 1 million people. About 10 deaths a year in the UK are reported to have been caused by food allergy.

Source:
Food Standards Agency http://www.food.gov.uk/
Eat well, be well website http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/

Useful links:
http://www.allergyuk.org/
http://www.allergyinschools.org.uk/
http://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/