Tree nuts food allergy

The most frequent elicitators of food allergy in children are peanuts and tree nuts [ 17]. In France the prevalence of food allergy has been estimated to be 3.2% [18]. Furthermore, in this study, food was identified as the most common cause of anaphylaxis. Here the major identified food allergens besides peanuts and tree nuts were shellfish, wheat and lupine flour [18]. 

These data suggest that due to an increase of food allergy and in particular tree nut and peanut sensitization, the risk for anaphylaxis has been increased at the same time. 

The prevalence of allergies fo specific foods is unknown for the most part. Good estimates exist of the prevalence of milk allergy in infancy (Hosf and Halken, 1990) and peanut and tree nut allergy throughout the life span (Sicherer et ah, 1999). However, the prevalence of allergies to seafoods including molluscan shellfish is not precisely known. 

Teuber, S.S. and W. R. Peterson. Systemic allergic reaction to coconut (Cocos nucifera) in 2 subjects with hypersensitivity to tree nut and demonstration of cross-reactivity to legu-min-like seed storage proteins new coconut and walnut food allergens. J Allergy Clin Immunol 1999 103(6) 1180-1185. 

Peanut or tree nut allergies affect approximately 3 million Americans and cause the most severe food-induced allergic reactions. 

At present, the problem of food allergy becomes essential also in Europe and Poland. About l%-2% of the adult population and 5%-8% infants/children have problems with the IgE-mediated form of food allergy (Jtjdrychowski, 2003). These specific reactions are directed toward several proteins present in peanuts, milk, soy, tree nuts, fish, or egg white. From the results presented it follows that food allergies in sensitive patients may be caused by the allergens contained by many food products at the same time. In Poland, allergic reactions are most often induced by the proteins of milk, eggs, fish, meat, poultry, tomatoes, and potatoes. 

Among 383 patients with food allergy, 37% revealed positive reaction to hazelnut (Etesamifar and Wiithrich 1998), and among pollen-allergic patients as much as 53% (Eriksson et al. 1982). In the areas where birch trees are endemic, hazelnut allergy is most often manifested as mild OAS, both in children and in adults (Cudowska and Kaczmarski 2004). However, the route of clinically relevant sensitization to hazelnut in children can be nonpollen related (Flinterman et al. 2006). Children can be sensitized to hazelnut at an early age. In many cases, reactions are very serious and frequently correlated with sensitivity to peanut or other tree nuts (Pumphrey et al. 1999). So far it has not been univocally settled which major allergens, and of which kind of nut, are responsible for the primary sensitization in children with objective reactions to hazelnuts. 

Furlong, T.J., DeSimone, J., and Sicherer, S.H. 2001. Peanut and tree nut allergic reactions in restaurants and other food establishments. J Allergy Clin Immunol 108 867-870. 

Crespo JF, James JM, Femandez-Rodriguez C, Rodriguez J (2006). Food allergy nuts and tree nuts. Br. J. Nutri, 96(suppl 2) S95-S102. 

Crespo, J.F., James, J.M., Fernandez-Rodriguez, C., and Rodriguez, J., Food allergy Nuts and tree nuts, Br. J. Nutr., 96 (Suppl. 2), 95S-102S, 2006. 

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