The prevalence of food allergies worldwide has nearly doubled during the past 20 years, doctors and scientists observe. Approximately 4% of the U.S. population is believed to be suffering from one or more food allergies, according to Wesley Burks, Chief of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C. ([email protected] With the current population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 299,682,000, that means that nearly 12 million people suffer from foo…