Food Allergy Awareness Week: May 11-17, 2025

Kacey Flores, PA-C, Physician Assistant, Coastal Gateway Health Center

  Did you know that over 32 million Americans are living with potentially life-threatening food allergies? Although nearly any food can trigger an allergic reaction, there are nine (9) food groups that are the most common reactants: eggs, milk, peanut, soy, wheat, tree nut, shellfish, fish, and sesame.

What is a food allergy?

  Food allergies are serious and potentially life-threatening medical conditions. The body’s immune system works to identify and eliminate germs (like bacteria or viruses) that make you sick. A food allergy occurs when your immune system overreacts to a harmless protein found in food—an allergen.

  Family history often plays a part in whether a person has food allergies. If you have other types of allergic reactions, like eczema or hay fever, you have a greater risk of developing a food allergy. Certain medical conditions, like Asthma, can also make you prone to food allergies.

  Food allergies are not the same as food intolerances, and food allergy symptoms overlap with symptoms of other medical conditions. Therefore, it is important to have your food allergy confirmed by an appropriate evaluation with an allergist or other healthcare provider.

Symptoms

  Food allergy reactions vary in severity. Symptoms can be mild or very severe—they can even be deadly.  Symptoms of an allergic reaction may involve the skin, the gastrointestinal tract, the cardiovascular system, and the respiratory tract.  Symptoms can include vomiting and/or stomach cramps, hives, shortness of breath, wheezing, repetitive cough, shock, tight/hoarse throat; trouble swallowing, weak pulse, swelling of the tongue, pale or blue coloring of skin, dizziness or feeling faint, and anaphylaxis – a potentially life-threatening reaction that can impair breathing and send the body into shock.

  Most food-related symptoms occur within two hours of ingestion; however, often they start within minutes. 

  Food allergy symptoms are most common in babies and children, but they can appear at any age. You can even develop an allergy to foods you have eaten for years with no problems. The CDC estimates that 8% of children and 11% of adults have food allergies.

Diagnosis

  To make a diagnosis, allergists ask detailed questions about your medical history and your symptoms. After taking your history, your allergist may order skin tests and/or blood tests, which indicate whether food-specific antibodies are present in your body. There are also confirmatory oral food challenges that can be done in office under close supervision.

Management & Treatment

  Once a food allergy is diagnosed, the most effective treatment is to avoid the food. Carefully check ingredient labels of food products and learn whether what you need to avoid is known by any other names. Children may outgrow their allergic reactions to milk and eggs. Peanut and tree nut allergies are likely to persist permanently.

  There are certain medications that may alleviate some symptoms. For severe allergies and to prevent anaphylaxis, your provider may prescribe an Epi-pen to be used at home. As of 2020, the FDA has approved a daily oral medication called Palforzia for peanut allergies in children between the ages of 4 and 17. Existing research is looking at ways to make patients less sensitive to food allergies, and there is a lot of hope for therapies that will manage food allergies in the future.

The Bottom Line

According to FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education):

• Food allergies result in more than 200,000 emergency department visits each year.
• A food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room every three minutes.
• There was a 377% increase in treatment of diagnosed anaphylactic reactions to food between 2007-2016.

May 11-17, 2025, is officially “Food Allergy Awareness Week,” and was created to raise public awareness of food allergies and their symptoms, support those with food allergies, and promote more research for improved treatments. You can wear the color teal to support and promote Food Allergy Awareness Week!