Food Allergen Testing

The National Institutes of Health estimates that 6–7 million people in the United States suffer from food allergies. Eight foods or food groups—milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, crustacean shellfish, soybeans, and wheat—are responsible for an almost 90% of all food allergies on a worldwide basis according to the Food and Drug Administration’s “Guidance Document for Food Investigators.”

The allergens in these foods are naturally occurring proteins. The symptoms experienced by food-allergic ind…