The frequency of food allergy in Australia and Asia

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1382-6689(97)10049-7Get rights and content

Abstract

A review of the development of food allergy in a birth cohort of 620 Australian infants at high risk for development of atopic disease has recently been completed. Extrapolating to a random community population showed that at the age of two, egg appears the most frequent food allergen (3.2%), while cow milk (2.0%), and peanut are of similar frequency (1.9%). The prevalence of hypersensitivity to wheat and soy appears similar to sesame seed, cashew nut, hazelnut and walnut, but allergy to fish, brazil nut and shell fish are uncommon. Despite a different methodology, reports from several Asian centres suggest a similar frequency of hypersensitivity to these foods in young children although hypersensitivity to shellfish and seafood was more common than for nuts, peanut and wheat, if seafoods are part of the staple infant diet. Rice hypersensitivity was rare in both Australia and Asian countries.

Introduction

There has been a widespread recognition of an increase in the prevalence of atopic illness throughout the world. However data on the prevalence of food allergy has not been systematically studied in general populations in this region and the prevalence must be estimated from selected populations. The region is heterogeneous and contains over a quarter of the world's population. There is cultural, racial and dietary diversity.

Section snippets

Food allergy in Australia

The population of Australia consists of 18 million. The country is divided into six states and territories. The ethnic background is mainly European and Middle Eastern with an increasing Asian (Chinese and Vietnamese) component. This study on food allergy is based in Victoria, Australia. Victoria has a population of 3.5 million and is representative of the overall Australian population. There are approximately 900 000 children under 15, and there are approximately 60 000 live births per year.

An

Food allergy in Asia

Little is known about the incidence and prevalence of food allergy in Asian countries despite the large proportion of the world's population they represent. Data is often reported in local journals that are not accessible to conventional literature searches in the English language. With limited reports available, objective assessments such as double-blind placebo-control food challenges are often lacking and definition of various food related allergic reactions are not robust enough to allow

Concluding remarks

Despite the limitations of the different methodologies used, our impression is that the patterns of food allergy to common foods is similar in Australia and Asia. Based on the food challenge studies from Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, hypersensitivity to milk and egg are the commonest food allergens. Soy, wheat and peanut hypersensitivity are next commonest, but rice allergy is rare. In countries where seafoods are part of the staple diet, hypersensitivity to these

Acknowledgements

The assistance of Joan Sedmak, Dr Somsak Wassanaroongroj (Thailand) and Dr Richard Sporik is gratefully acknowledged.

References (15)

  • D.J. Hill et al.

    Manifestations of milk allergy in infancy: clinical and immunological findings

    J. Pediatr.

    (1986)
  • M. Bishop et al.

    Natural history of cow's milk allergy. Clinical outcome

    J. Pediatr.

    (1990)
  • D.J. Hill et al.

    Clinical manifestations of cow milk allergy in childhood: II. The diagnostic value of skin test and RAST

    Clin. Allergy

    (1988)
  • D.J. Hill et al.

    Cow milk allergy in infancy and early childhood

    Clin. Exp. Allergy

    (1996)
  • A. Høst et al.

    A prospective study of cow's milk allergy in Danish infants during the first 3 years of life

    Allergy

    (1990)
  • I. Jacobsson et al.

    A prospective study of cow's milk protein intolerance in Swedish infants

    Acta Paediatra. Scand.

    (1979)
  • N.K. Lai et al.

    Allergen skin test and clinical features in 763 patients with bronchial asthma in Guangzhou

    Chin. J. Int. Med.

    (1985)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (112)

  • Sesame allergy

    2021, Revue Francaise d'Allergologie
  • The Prevalence of Food Sensitization Appears Not to Have Changed between 2 Melbourne Cohorts of High-Risk Infants Recruited 15 Years Apart

    2018, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice
    Citation Excerpt :

    As MACS recruited only high-risk infants, it was not clear what proportion of the general population they represented. It was estimated that it represented 19.3% of the general population when comparing characteristics with those of another birth cohort recruited elsewhere in Australia at the same time.32 In addition, the prevalence of other allergic diseases (asthma, eczema, allergic rhinitis) is reported to have increased over last 50 years, reaching a plateau around the 1990s.

  • Particularities of allergy in the Tropics

    2016, World Allergy Organization Journal
  • In silico and experimental evaluation of DNA-based detection methods for the ability to discriminate almond from other Prunus spp.

    2015, Molecular and Cellular Probes
    Citation Excerpt :

    Food allergy affects approximately 5% of young children and 3–4% of adults in western countries [16]. The prevalence of almond allergy in Australian children was estimated to be 0.02% [17]. Data specifically regarding almond allergy in the general population are scarce, as it is often monitored in connection with allergy to tree nuts.

  • Detection and control of soybeans as a food allergen

    2015, Handbook of Food Allergen Detection and Control
View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text