What is Food Allergy and Why It Is Important
Allergy happens when a person has a negative reaction to a food substance. These reactions may be completely harmless to other people. These substances are known as allergens (triggers) and they can be emitted from various sources such as dust, animals, pollens, some special drugs or foods. Based on the researches, the estimated public concern on food allergies is around 6% in Europe.
What is the Difference Between Food Intolerance and Food Allergy?
Your digestive system reacts to the food you are intolerant to and this may be resulting from the weak performance of your digestive system in digesting food; but when it comes to food allergy, your immune system attempt is to protect your body by eliminating allergens.
This action, known as "the mistake of the immune system" in medical science, takes place as soon as recognizing a harmful substance as a serious threat followed by body attack to it. (this also takes place in cancer cell development.) When an allergic reaction begins to start, the immune system produces antibodies—proteins responsible for recognizing and attacking external substances. This antibody, the cause of food allergic reactions, is called Immunoglobulin E (IgE).
How Many are the Allergic Reaction Types?
Exposure to allergens leads to different degrees, ranging from mild to life-threatening, of allergic reactions. Normal allergy signs include sneezing, stuffy nose, dry or watery eyes, coughing or severe wheezing. Life-threatening allergic reaction signs, known as anaphylaxis, attack and severe stage of shock, include shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, anxiety and loss of consciousness.
How to Manage Food Allergies?
Food allergy management is a matter of importance in public health. The responsibility of this management is on all food industry, market regulators, health professionals and allergy sufferers.
Warning labels, such as allergenic; unsuitable for people with food allergies, on food packages is the best inform for consumers; to get this aim, a manufacturer should be well-informed of the ingredients, as well as their allergic effects, used in products. Damage, contamination or accidental shortfalls in production processes, equipment storage, employees, packaging processes, cleaning or disinfection of the environment may lead to the exposure of allergens with the products.
Example) a pasta factory produces pastas, some of which contain eggs and some do not. In this case, even if the production of the two pasta models takes place at different time periods, the applied manufacturing equipment is the same. In case of any sanitation and sterilization error, the both products may contain egg, which definitely brings problems for people with egg allergy.
As mentioned, some food product manufacturers apply warning labels to inform consumers, in this way, they take the burden off customers’ shoulders completely.
What are Customer Rights to Food Products?
The question is: Can we make sure that our chosen food products lacks allergens? The answer to this question is definitely yes. People with allergies to certain ingredients have the right to know what ingredients are in the product they are going to purchase. In some countries, there are related laws that manufacturers must comply with:
- Food labels must accurately show allergenic ingredients used in the product. The color, size, and different font of these ingredients must be different from the normal ingredients of the product. The aim of these differences is to inform the details to consumers quickly.
- In case of the manufacturer’s unwillingness in showing the ingredients of the product, the allergens must still be displayed independently on the label.
- All the allergic ingredient details must be present on the description part of the products purchased online. In this way, customers do not need to search for the ingredients of the product after purchasing; thus, they have the opportunity to make a wise decision while purchasing.
- Consumers have the right to ask manufacturers of non-packaged products, such as caterers, restaurants and other sellers about production methods, sanitation of equipment, as well as allergenic ingredients. In addition, the employees of these places must be well-informed of the used allergic ingredients.
In Conclusion
In general, food allergies occur when the immune system of the body reacts to a food substance that is usually harmless. There are increasing number of allergies across the world. Food allergies are becoming more common. If you are allergic to certain food substances, make sure to read the label on the back of the food package before consumption to avoid the allergic food.