Intolerance to food additives - does it exist?
'Food intolerance' is often confused with a range of adverse symptoms which may be coincidental to ingestion of food. 'Food intolerance' is defined as a reaction in which symptoms must be objectively reproducible and not known to involve an immunological mechanism. A more precise term is non-allergic food hypersensitivity, which contrasts with food allergies which are due to an immunological mechanism. Some children will experience food reactions to food additives. Reported symptoms range from urticaria/angioedema to hyperactive behaviours. While parents/carers report that over one fifth of children experience of food reaction, only 1 in 20 of these are confirmed to have a non-allergic food hypersensitivity on testing.
Department of Allergy and Immunology, The Children's Hospital at Westmead and University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. pault1@chw.edu.au
Paul J
PJ
Turner
Andrew S
AS
Kemp
D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology*; D002648:Child; D005503:Food Additives / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005505:Food Coloring Agents / Q000009:adverse effects; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans
D005503:Food Additives; D005505:Food Coloring Agents