Food Allergies, Labels and Genetic Engineering

Although it's difficult to come by hard data, many doctors believe that food allergies are on the rise, says Hugh Sampson, M.D., professor of pediatric allergy/immunology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, noting that the percentage of children under five who are allergic to peanuts has doubled in the last five years. But hypotheses as to why vary, according to Sampson. It may be that we are so focused on cleanliness that young children are not exposed to appropriate bacterial or viral stimulation, resulting in their immune systems not being switched to appropriate responses. This theory has been used to explain the rise of both allergies and asthma. Also, as breast-feeding has become more popular, some of the major allergens are passed through breast milk, and there is a question about whether this is the appropriate way or time to become tolerant to major allergens. Another possible explanation lies in how foods are processed and cooked as well as the greater variety of foods available. "We have global distribution of all these foods, many of which are new to us, and because of that we are seeing some allergies that we wouldn't previously have seen. For instance, there never used to be kiwi allergies, because nobody ate them," Sampson says.

Throwing genetically modified foods into the equation could make it even more complicated, especially as strict avoidance of allergens is currently the only defense against food allergies. When you put other genes into a plant, for instance, there is a possibility that this will cause the plant to make larger amounts of proteins that could be allergic. You could also take a highly allergic protein from one food and introduce it into another food, so that food-allergic individuals will have to avoid both foods, and you'd need a label to reflect that change. "Labeling is going to be a real problem, given the way foods move around the world, so I think that before something goes out genetically modified, we have to be very confident that it is going to be okay," says Sampson. In 1996 soybeans spliced with brazil-nut genes were kept from the market because they contained a known allergen from brazil nuts.

Labeling is already complicated enough, especially for worried parents of children with serious allergies. What to look for on labels varies depending on what foods you are trying to avoid. For example, manufacturers don't have to say outright that milk is in a product; they can list milk ingredients such as whey, casein or a number of varieties. The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004, however, will require that foods manufactured after January 1, 2006, list major allergens in ingredients—milk, egg, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans. Labels will have to list ingredients in simple terms that even a seven-year old could read and reveal allergens in spices, flavorings, coloring and incidental additives.