Food Allergy in Adults and Children

Food allergy is defined as an adverse health effect arising from a specific immune response that occurs reproducibly on exposure to a given food and is distinct from food intolerance. Clinical manifestations of food allergy are varied and involve many systems including respiratory, cutaneous, and gastrointestinal. The double-blinded placebo-controlled oral food challenge remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of IgE-mediated food allergy. Areas of ongoing research include improved understanding of determinants for the development of tolerance versus sensitization for foods, the role of diagnostic testing for specific epitopes for food allergens, and the use of oral immunotherapy for IgE-mediated food allergy.