Have your say and help to ensure food allergens are clearly identified on beer products. Learn about two studies that are currently seeking participants: a peanut study for 5-11 year olds and a latex study. Plus, read the latest in food allergy research: the risk of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) in children with allergic diseases, how breastmilk sugars can help prevent food allergies, and how allergic reactions are milder in infants than older children.
Check out our mythbuster this month where we talk about cooking at high temperatures and whether allergens can be “cooked away”.
Advocating for allergen labelling on beer – have your say before September 14, 2018
Last year, many of you told the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that allergen labelling should no longer be exempt from standardized beer. This was during their initial open consultation on the proposed changes on regulations, so beer compositional standards could be updated.
The CFIA recently published their proposed amendments based on that feedback, which include new requirements for brewers to identify food allergens, gluten sources, and added sulphites for prepackaged standardized beers, ales, stouts, porters, and malt liquor.
Thanks to those of you who participated in last year’s initial consultations and for supporting our advocacy efforts for clear labelling on beer products!
Now we need your help to ensure these changes get implemented. Learn more.
Call for participants closing August 13th: Latex allergy study
A latex allergy study is underway at Inflamax Research in Mississauga, Ontario. They are seeking healthy adults to participate in this study.
As there is cross-reactivity with latex and some foods, like banana, avocado, chestnut, and kiwi, some members in the food allergy community may also have a latex allergy or know affected individuals who might be interested in this study (please share with them).
Learn more and participate today.
New! Call for participants: Peanut allergy study for 5-11 year olds
A study to look at a new investigational immunotherapy for peanut allergy is presently underway at Inflamax Research in Mississauga, Ontario.
The research team is seeking children aged 5-11 years with a peanut allergy, with no history of anaphylaxis, to participate in this study.
If your child is interested in participating, we encourage you to contact the research team directly to learn more about potential risks and benefits of this study, and to also speak with your child’s physician.
Learn more on how to participate.
Research: Children with allergies at increased risk of developing esophagus inflammation
According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, children with known skin, food and respiratory allergies should be screened for an emerging, chronic food allergy called eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), a painful inflammation of the esophagus.
Pediatric allergists who analyzed children from birth to adolescence say that EoE should be considered a later component of the “allergic march” — the natural history in which many children successively develop a series of allergies.
Learn more from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Research: Allergic reactions to foods are milder in infants, study finds
Symptoms of food-induced anaphylaxis in infants are much less severe than in toddlers and older children, according to a study from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
While in older children an allergic reaction to food can be life-threatening, anaphylaxis in infants mostly presents as hives and vomiting, the study found – suggesting there is less concern for a life-threatening response to early food introduction.
Research: Breastmilk sugars known as HMOs may help prevent food allergies
Findings from AllerGen’s CHILD Study indicate that complex sugars in breastmilk, known as human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), may reduce the risk of babies later developing food allergies.
“Our research has identified a ‘beneficial’ HMO profile that was associated with a lower rate of food sensitization in children at one year of age,” says lead researcher Dr. Meghan Azad, Canada Research Chair in Developmental Origins of Chronic Disease at the University of Manitoba.
AllerGen is a national research network dedicated to improving the quality of life of people with allergic and related immune diseases. Read more.
Mythbuster: Cooking a food at high temperature will kill the protein and I won’t be allergic to it.
Cooking, even with high heat and other methods of food processing, does not reliably destroy food allergens, and doesn’t ensure safety for people with food allergies.
Foods are complex mixtures, and how they respond to heat is not always predictable. This also varies depending on the allergen. For example, certain people with milk and egg allergy can consume baked egg and baked milk safely when these allergens are partly destroyed by heating. But only some people with an allergy can tolerate cooked egg or milk (speak to your allergist about whether trying baked milk or egg is right for you). Other allergens, such as peanut, are not affected by heat for anyone with that allergy.
Bottom Line: You can’t cook all the allergens out of a food.
Help us educate your communities and share this Mythbuster with them! Stay tuned for more Mythbusters to come.
Medical content reviewed by: Dr. Julia Upton, MD, FRCP(C) Clinical Immunology and Allergy
Check out our blog for other myths about:
- Results of skin prick tests indicate severity of allergy
- Pesticides and other chemicals can trigger allergies
- Epinephrine auto-injector cures food allergy
- Which allergens cause life-threatening reactions
- Desensitization
- One food allergy being more serious than the other
- EpiPens being dangerous
- Using Benadryl
- Too young for epinephrine
- Food allergy “cures”
- Too young for testing