The term “food allergy” is often misused: reference is being made to reactions and sensations which have nothing to do with allergy. A clear distinction must be made between real allergic reactions and simple intolerance or psychological aversion to a certain food.
In September 2001, an updated classification of hyper-sensitive reactions to foods was published: real allergic reactions are said to be so-called “immunomediated”, that is supported by an immunological mechanism both on an antibody basis (antibodies of the IgE type, real allergies), and on a cellular one, that is mediated by lymph cells, like celiac disease.
Non immunomediated reactions are the toxic and enzymatic ones, like lactose intolerance.
This new classification excludes a wide area of food reactions like the psychogenous reactions. Here we need to underline that important population percentages (up to 25% in the USA) exclude certain foods considered to be allergic from their diet, without the allergy having been clinically proven.
Recent studies have highlighted that more than 30% of mothers felt that their child was allergic when it was a baby, though the only reactions were stomach colic or slight skin rashes, very common in babies.
Research has shown that antibody immunomediated food allergy of the IgE type is no higher than 4/5% in the first years of life.
There are some foods that can cause allergic sensitisation, like cow or goat milk. Important allergens are also present in other foods: eggs, fish, wheat, soy and peanuts. These foods can cause violent clinical reactions, like anaphylactic shock, which causes an average of about 100 deaths per year.
These incidents are frequently caused by the fact that food labels do not indicate the presence of minimum quantities of ingredients contained.
Revision of labelling is therefore an important need: on July 24 2003, the Italian Senate unanimously approved a draft bill on labelling for products containing gluten and the obligation, for collective restoration to supply meals with no gluten content.
The amended article reads as follows:
... if a food product or one of its ingredients (aromas, additives or adjuvants), should contain cereals with gluten or substances deriving from it;
And/or if a manufacturing process should add gluten to a food product that is analytically determined as being more than 20 ppm, the label of said product must contain, at the bottom of the list of ingredients and well visible, the phrase: "this product contains gluten".
We must also not forget that having a positive reaction to an allergy test for a certain food does not necessarily mean a clinical problem: before eliminating any food you are sensitive to from your diet, it is advisable to do a challenge test proving the relationship with the reaction.
