Benedict Blythe was only five and in his first term at school when he died from an allergic reaction. Benedict was allergic to milk, soya, sesame, eggs and nuts. His parents have started a government petition calling for mandatory safeguards for allergic children to be in place in all school to include:

• Having an allergy policy, including an anaphylaxis plan
• For pupils with food allergies, an IHP (individual healthcare plan) and anaphylaxis action plan completed (and regularly updated) collaboratively by the child, parents/carers and school staff
• Holding spare AAIs that are in-date
• Implementing training for school staff and teachers on allergies and anaphylaxis and a whole school allergy awareness approach

Sign the petition here.

Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has recently released a report entitled “Vegan and Plant-based Food“ in which it outlined the extent to which the public is confused about the meaning of ‘vegan’, and the worrying number of vegan-labelled products which contain traces of egg, milk or other animal derivatives. Read more in an excellent post here on the Allergy Insight site. Further comment here on Michelle Berriedale Johnson's bog.

Excellent podcast interview with Dan Parker, CEO of Veg Power on Geoff Tansey's blog. How to counteract the power of the junk food advertisers, how to instill a culture of veg eating in young children, the importance of free school meals - and more. Check in here.

Pholcodine is a drug that is to be found in a wide range of cough medicines. Unfortunately pholcodine has a similar molecular structure to the muscle relaxing drugs which are routinely given to patients about to undergo operations. If that patient has recently (within the last year) had an allergic reaction to pholcodine they could easily react to a muscle relaxant administered prior to an operation. Read more....

The treatment of the allergic conditions, beyond medications and implementation of environmental modification maneuvers, is based on the administration of allergy immunotherapy. But there are increasingly strong economic and regulatory pressures adversely influencing the practice of allergy immunotherapy. Interesting article in the Townsend Letter.

In a recent BSACI on line symposium Professor Stephen Holgate called for urgent action to tackle the environmental causes of the global explosion in allergy cases: the loss of biodiversity, pollution, diet and urbanisation. A timely call but the evidence has been there for many years. Read on...

New research funded by the Food Standards Agency looks at the actual costs of living with a food sensitivity both in terms of food and of time lost/spent coping with it - and an estimate of how much people would pay to get rid of that sensitivity. January 2023

New research suggests that of those with food allergies 5-6% may also have coeliac disease - very similar to the levels seen in those with type 1 diabetes and many other autoimmune conditions. See here for the research report; see here for useful comment in Alex Gazzola's Allergy Insight blog. January 2023

Research by Dr Hazel Gowland and Dr Michael Walker covering allergy related cases in the UK courts between Jan 2014 and Feb 2020 show that successful prosecutions resulted in improved allergen control and tightening of allergen related legislation, especially in food service. 28th December 2022

Trehalose intolerance is caused by a deficiency of the enzyme trehalase, which is required to break down the dietary sugar trehalose into glucose in the gut, for absorption. It is found mainly in mushrooms, particularly shiitake and oyster mushrooms, but also seaweed / algae, shellfish, insects, sunflower seeds and yeasts. As an additive, it is sometimes used to prolong the shelf life of dried food — especially in Japan. 5 September 22 For more see the Allergy Insight blog here.

John Scott who suffered for many years from Total Food Intolerance (finally resolved through Helminthic Therapy) has now started a Facebook group for Total Food Intolerance sufferers. As he says, ‘thanks to the complete lack of effective treatment options in the medical kit bag and typical dismissal of the condition as psychosomatic by medics, some sort of support group is desperately needed'. For more on Total Food Intolerance follow the links from this blog post. Read more.