Quick Facts On Allergen

• There are eight major food allergens in the United States: milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts (cashews, almonds, pecans, walnuts), soy, wheat, fish, and crustacean shellfish (lobster, crabs, shrimp).
• In the United States, food allergy affects an estimated 5 percent of children under the age of 5 and an estimated 4 percent of people aged 5 and older.
• The prevalence of food allergy increased by 18 percent from 1997 to 2007.
• Estimated prevalence rates in the United States for individual food allergens include the following:
  • Peanut: 0.6 percent
  • Tree nuts: 0.4–0.5 percent
  • Milk and egg: no reliable data available from U.S. studies, but based on data obtained outside the United States, this rate is likely to be 1 to 2 percent for young children
  • All seafood: 0.6 percent in children and 2.8 percent in adults
• Most children eventually outgrow milk, egg, soy, and wheat allergy. Outgrowing a childhood food allergy may occur as late as the teenage years.
• Children are much less likely to outgrow peanut and tree nut allergy.
• If someone has food allergy, he or she is more likely to have asthma or eczema.
• A person is more likely to have a severe allergic reaction to food if he or she also has asthma or if he or she has previously had an anaphylactic reaction.
• Allergic reactions to food can range from mild to life-threatening.
• A person cannot tell how severe his or her next food-allergic reaction will be based on the severity of previous reactions.
• Even with attempts to avoid food, accidental exposures leading to an allergic reaction do occur at a rate of nearly once per year in young children who are highly allergic.
• Because of the high risk of allergic reactions to food, many people with food allergy are prescribed auto-injector epinephrine, which should be with them at all times.

Source:National Institute of Allergen And Infectious Disease (US)