ABSTRACT
The incidence and prevalence of food allergy have risen over the past 10-15years, and this has been described as the second wave of the allergy epidemic. There is currently no definitive therapy or cure for IgE-mediated food allergy, hence current efforts have targeted possible preventive and management strategies. Strict avoidance of offending foods is of paramount importance in the long-term management of food allergy. Oral immunotherapy (OIT) involves ingestion of small amounts of allergen extracts from culprit foods in a powder form or mixture of culprit foods with a food vehicle. Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) involves the placement of drops of allergen extracts under the tongue, held for 2 minutes, and then swallowed. This chapter presents an overview of the current evidence on the efficacy of allergen-specific immunotherapy for foodallergy, and discusses future research directions. Given that their clinical efficacy is the most established, in comparison to other routes of administration, it focuses on the potentials of OIT and SLIT.
