ABSTRACT
Although most people use the term ‘food allergy’ loosely to cover all unpleasant reactions to food, the current clinical classification is based on the type of adverse response to food (Johansson et al. 2004). ‘Food hypersensitivity’ is the umbrella term used to cover all the different types of physiological reactions to foods (Figure 7.1.1). Food allergy triggers the immune system to respond to a food protein, whereas the term ‘food intolerance’ is used when the immune system is not involved and the reactions may be triggered by chemicals in a food that are either naturally occurring or have been added in the processing of that food.
