Facts about Food Allergies

Please read these facts about food allergies to gain understanding the problem affecting us & more than 11 million Americans. You or your child will likely be social situations with a person w/food allergies, since occurrences are increasing dramatically. Some people think the parents of allergic children are “overprotective,” but when you are risking a severe reaction, or your child’s life, you go to extremes to protect your child.

Food allergies kill more than 150 Americans each year and are responsible for 30,000 emergency room visits.


For reasons that scientists cannot yet explain, food allergies afflict more and more children each year. Between 1997 and 2002, the number of children under age five in the United States suffering from peanut allergies doubled.


The average American elementary school today has ten children suffering from severe food allergies.


There are currently no medications to cure or control food allergies. Strict avoidance of the allergenic food is the only way to avoid a reaction.


The most common allergens –peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, milk, fish, shellfish, wheat and soy – are staples of our food supply and nearly impossible to avoid completely.


For some children, even small traces of allergenic foods, as little as a drop of milk left on a shopping cart from another child’s snack, for instance, can trigger life-threatening anaphylaxis.


Food allergy affects the entire community surrounding a food allergic child. Schools attended by severely food allergic children must take a variety of precautions – from sanitizing classroom toys to segregating dining areas to providing special medical staff and training – in order to safeguard their health.


Learn more at the Food Allergy Network here.