ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION A number of advances in the scientific knowledge concerning adverse food reactions have been made in the last several years. Current understanding is significantly different about the nature of the food allergen itself, the molecular characterization of the epitopes on these allergens, the pathophysiology of the clinical reaction, and the limitations of the diagnostic methods. Part of the difficulty in understanding adverse food reactions had resulted from the nomenclature used in this literature, but moreconcise definitions are helping standardize the literature (1) (Table 1). An adverse food reaction is a generic term referring to any untoward reaction after the ingestion of a food. Adverse food reactions may be secondary to food allergy (hypersensitivity) or food intolerance. A food allergic reaction is the result of an immunologic mechanism induced by the ingestion of a food, while food intolerance is the result of nonimmunologic mechanisms (2).
