ABSTRACT
Food allergy has evolved from being a problem for the food-allergic individual to one of signi‹cant public health importance.1 The increased awareness of foodallergic disorders has resulted from better understanding and improved diagnosis. It has been estimated that currently as much as 4% of the total population is affected by food-allergic disorders, while the frequency is even higher for infants and children, with prevalence levels reaching 8%.2-4 Despite the numerous advances in medicine and modern health care that have led to many improvements of the general heath of the population, no reduction in the frequency of allergic disorders like food allergy has been achieved. In contrast, there are unfortunately clear indications that the problem of food allergy shows a contrasting trend, and that the prevalence of food allergy has risen in recent years. This was con‹rmed in a study that found a doubling of the prevalence of peanut allergy over a period of only 5 years.5 Not only the prevalence levels are high and on the rise, but also the awareness among the general population is high, with 25% of parents believing that their children suffer from a food allergy.6
