A food allergy is a reaction caused by the immune system’s adverse response to particular foods, causing distressing and often severe symptoms.  An allergic reaction to food can range from skin disorders (which include itching, rashes and hives); swelling (angioedema); gut symptoms, vomiting, tummy pain, diarrhoea; respiratory symptoms such as blocked or runny nose, coughing and wheezing. When an allergy is present, the symptoms usually develop rapidly and may be serious.

Food allergies, as opposed to intolerances, are quite rare, affecting approximately 2% of the adult UK population and up to 8% of children. The foods that most commonly cause allergic reactions are peanuts, tree nuts (such as almonds, walnuts), eggs, milk, fish, sesame, soya and wheat.

On the other hand, food intolerance reactions are quite common, yet can be equally as distressing as a food allergy.  The amount of people in all age categories suffering from a food intolerance has increased greatly in recent years.   Often obscure symptoms which your GP has not been able to resolve can be a result of an intolerance to certain foods.    Foods most commonly associated with these reactions include dairy products (such as milk and cheese), fish, yeast (found in bread, biscuits and some alcoholic drinks) and grains that contain gluten.