For food allergy sufferers, it’s not enough to read labels

If you or someone in your family suffers from food allergies, you may have already found this out the hard way — checking food package labels may not mean a darn thing.

All those notices you see that say “may contain traces of…” or “made in a factory with…” are totally voluntary. That’s right, voluntary.

On top of that, it turns out that knowing exactly how allergic you or your child might be to a particular food is a crap shoot, too.

So, if you have any food allergies, before you take another bite of a cookie, cracker or any other processed food, there are some important things you need to know right now.

Because you could be playing a game of Russian roulette at every meal.

Eat, drink and be wary

If you’re confused about food allergies, guess what? So is everyone else!

And that includes doctors and members of a new panel who convened at the prestigious National Academies of Sciences (NAS) to study them.

The NAS panel reported a number of shocking things, starting with the fact that there are “no simple, accurate diagnostic tests” that can find out how serious your food allergies are.

Apparently, all those skin prick tests merely suggest that you might have a food allergy. And that can leave you or your child wide open for a potential catastrophe.

Merrill Debbs, for example, had been told by doctors that her son Oakley only had a mild allergy to nuts. So when he ate a piece of cake that had a walnut in it shortly after Thanksgiving, the family thought a dose of Benadryl would be enough. And for a while, everything was fine.

But then Oakley started having “a tornado of issues” that quickly spiraled out of control. Tragically, the 11-year-old passed away after being rushed to the hospital.

While the top allergens must be listed on the ingredient label if used, as I said, the rest is voluntary. It’s left totally up to manufacturers whether or not to warn that there could be cross-contamination in a product. And that’s something that could be deadly.

And don’t expect some new rules will be rushed out to fix that, either. Because the first step, according to the NAS report, is to get more information about food allergies, starting with how many kids and adults have them.

Well, thanks for nothing.

While there are plenty of things we don’t know about food allergies, there are some very important ones we do.

For example:

#1: Don’t trust a simple “food allergy panel” to diagnose true food allergies. Researchers at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio said that while the panel tests are marketed to doctors as being convenient, it’s rare that they offer any “useful information for patients.”

Instead, experts say that children should be tested for allergens one at a time. And where food allergies are concerned, it’s better to consult with a specialist rather than your primary care doctor or pediatrician.

#2: If someone in your family accidently eats something they’re allergic to, don’t think everything is okay if there’s no immediate reaction. As Oakley’s mom found out, a serious, life-threatening one can also come on slowly. While his family had an EpiPen on hand, they didn’t think it was needed… until it was suddenly too late.

#3: While most food allergies start in childhood, they can also develop in adults. If you think you might be having a reaction to something that has never bothered you before, you may want to start a trial elimination diet or a supervised food challenge to find out.

#4: New research has found that giving peanut products to babies before their first birthday may protect them from developing allergies later on. One caveat to that is if your child or grandchild has already been found to be allergic to eggs, exposure to nuts should only be done under a pediatrician’s supervision.

“Science panel urges rewrite of food allergy warning labels” Associated Press, November 30, 2016, Stat, statnews.com