(iVillage Total Health) - People with food allergies may be at greater risk of severe allergic reactions than they realize when dining out at restaurants and other eateries. A new poll of chefs, servers and food handlers at 100 restaurants found many are unaware of basic facts about how food allergens can be transmitted in the kitchen.
A food allergy is a potentially fatal response by a person's immune system to a food or food component. After a susceptible person ingests a problem food, the immune system reacts with the release of histamines and other chemicals that trigger symptoms ranging from mild itching, hives or swelling to more severe breathing difficulty and blood pressure drop, called anaphylactic shock. The most common food allergens are: peanuts and tree nuts, cow's milk, eggs, wheat, soybeans, fish and shellfish.
The poll was conducted by researchers from the Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Numerous misconceptions about food allergies were revealed in the findings, even though the majority of food service workers polled said they felt comfortable providing safe meals to customers. Nearly a quarter of the staff members said consuming a small amount of an allergen was safe. More than a third of the workers said that frying foods destroys allergens and 25 percent believed that removing an allergen from a finished meal made it safe to eat.
Copyright 2009 NBC Health
Click here to read the rest of the article at HealthVideo.com
