Sugar allergy insufficiently recognized in the United States

Allergy to sesame seeds is far more prevalent in the United States than previously recognized in both children and adults, but food allergy remains largely undiagnosed, researchers report.

Their cross-sectional badysis, based on a survey of more than 50,000 households, suggests that nearly 1.5 million children and adults in the United States have sesame allergies that can be serious or life threatening.

In the survey sample, 0.49% had an allergy to sesame and 0.23% met the criteria for convincing an IgE-mediated allergy.

One in three children and adults with allergies to sesame had severe symptoms of allergic reaction, and one in three also reported having treated such reactions with an epinephrine auto-injector at some point in the past, reported Ruchi S. Gupta, MD Asthma Research at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago and colleagues.

The results of the study, published in JAMA Network Open, "Show a substantial and probably increasing weight of sesame allergy in the United States," the team wrote.

The findings could also have important implications for health policy in food labeling, Gupta said. MedPage today.

The FDA is currently considering adding sesame seeds to the current list of allergenic foods that need to be labeled on packaging, which now includes peanuts, milk, shellfish, nuts, eggs, eggs, soy, fish and wheat.

The present study was conducted in response to FDA's request for additional information on the prevalence and severity of sesame allergy in the United States. "We insist that sesame be added to the list because it is often a hidden ingredient in processed foods." Gupta said.

She pointed out that such labeling is already required in Canada, in the European Union and in Israel. "Now that we know that sesame allergy is also prevalent in the United States, it's time for us to include it too," she said.

Jennifer Protudjer, Ph.D., and Elissa Abrams, MD, both of the Yee Center for Healthcare Innovation at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, have written in an accompanying commentary, stating that the only way to do this is to find that they are in the right place. badysis "allows to consider the possibility of listing sesame among the best allergen in the United States", questions remain.

Protudjer and Abrams noted that 81.6% of survey respondents who reported a sesame allergy also reported having other food allergies, nearly half of which were peanut allergies.

"This requires a need for multiple tests in people suspected of sesame allergy who also have a possible peanut allergy and points to the need for ongoing studies to better define the natural history of the peanut allergy. Sesame allergy, "wrote the commentators. "To our knowledge, there is no known cross-reactivity between the main allergenic proteins of sesame and peanut.Additional research on sesame and peanut components could be warranted . "

Details of the study

The cross-sectional study included data from a detailed survey of the prevalence of food allergy conducted with a nationally representative sample of US households from the fall of 2015 to the 1930s. Fall 2016. A total of 51,819 households were included in the badysis, information on food allergy obtained from approximately 40,443 adults. and 38,408 children.

The researchers made the following estimates, based on survey responses:

• Approximately 0.11% (95% CI, 0.08% to 0.16%) of respondents "had a sesame allergy reported as a diagnosed physician, but did not report reactions that satisfied the convincing reaction symptoms specified by # 39; investigation "

• Among people with IgE-mediated sesame allergy, approximately 23.6% (95% CI 16.9% to 32.0%) at 37.2% (95% CI 29.2% 45.9%) had previously had a serious allergic reaction to sesame

• In total, 81.6% of participants (95% CI, 71.0% to 88.9%) had at least one additional food allergy and 33.7% reported having used epinephrine for sesame ingestion reactions.

The first author of the study, Christopher Warren, Ph.D., also from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, said MedPage today Sesame allergy has not yet been recognized as a food allergy affecting both adults and children: "What our data show, and this is consistent with other countries, is that rates are equally high among adults, "he said.

In addition, about 25% of adults with allergies to sesame developed an allergic reaction in adulthood.

2019-08-02T15: 30: 00-0400