The number of people in England with food allergies has more than doubled between 2008 and 2018, a new study reveals. The researchers, from Imperial College London, found that rates are highest among preschool children, with 4% having a “probable” food allergy.
They also found that a third of those people at risk of anaphylaxis – a life-threatening allergic reaction – don’t carry adrenaline autoinjector “pens”, such as EpiPens. People in deprived areas were found to be less likely to have been prescribed these life-saving injectors.
The true number of people with food allergies has been difficult to establish, with estimates varying between under 1% and over 9% of children. This is because several methods are used to estimate the frequency of food allergies, including using either the number of prescriptions of adrenaline pens, self-reporting, or blood tests to identify telltale antibodies.
