Family Health
More Can Be Done By Consumers And The Food Industry To Prevent Allergic Reactions
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Aug 15, 2007 - 4:06:29 PM

WSJ.com/Harris Interactive Survey Suggests That More Can Be Done By Consumers And The Food Industry To Prevent Allergic Reactions


(HealthNewsDigest.com) - ROCHESTER, N.Y. – August 15, 2007 – One in five American households includes at least one person who suffers from food allergies, but most people who say they have food allergies have not been tested by a doctor. One-third of those with food allergies categorize their condition as very serious or life threatening, and the National Institutes of Health has stated that food allergies are an emerging public health problem in this country.

Most people who suffer from food allergies have taken one or more precautions to prevent allergic reactions. The most common steps people take are to inquire about how foods are prepared when dining out, or informing food servers and managers about their food allergies. Less frequently used precautions include notifying employers or schools about their condition, carrying an emergency pack of medication or wearing some form of medical alert tag like a bracelet or chain.

These are some of the results of an online survey of 2,853 U.S. adults ages 18 years and over, of whom 615 have someone in their household with food allergies, conducted by Harris Interactive between July 17 and 19, 2007 for The Wall Street Journal Online’s Health Industry Edition (www.wsj.com/health). Among these 615 adults, 185 have life threatening or very serious food allergies and 430 have allergies that are only a nuisance or no bother.

In spite of these precautions four in ten food allergy sufferers have experienced allergic reactions because they lacked or received inaccurate information about the foods they purchased. One in four say they were not informed about an ingredient in a meal and one in five were misinformed. Nearly one in five experienced reactions because of foods that were incorrectly or insufficiently labeled.

Katherine Binns, Division President for Healthcare Research at Harris Interactive, comments, “According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, approximately 30,000 individuals require emergency room treatment each year as a result of food allergies[1]. To help Americans avoid food allergen health risks, Congress passed the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004[2], which applies to all domestic and imported foods regulated by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and requires that labels identify the food source of all major food allergens[3]. Additionally, the FDA has also conducted food allergen education programs for consumers and industry[4]. These survey findings suggest that all of these efforts are needed and welcomed by the general public.”

A variety of guidelines have been proposed to help ensure that individuals are not exposed to food allergens. These include training kitchen staff to avoid the cross contamination of foods, ensuring that staff are aware of specific allergens in dishes, listing potential allergy inducing ingredients on menus and making diners aware of dishes that contain potential allergens. The majority of the American public -- whether or not they have food allergies -- welcomes such preventative guidelines.

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