Some foods are very dangerous to human health, if they contain allergens that people eating them are sensible to. Ingesting fish or fruit for instance can cause anaphylaxis, which, if left untreated, can cause death. With this in mind, a European team set out to discover a cure for the symptoms of allergies, a treatment that would significantly increase the quality of life for those people who must now carefully investigate the package of every food they buy, in order to ensure that it wouldn't be their last.
 

"Food allergy affects around 10 million EU citizens and there is no cure. All people with food allergy can do is avoid the foods to which they are allergic. The threat of severe anaphylaxis has a great impact on their quality of life," argues Institute of Food Research scientist Dr. Clare Mills, one of the lead partners in the Food Allergy Specific Therapy (FAST) research project.
 

Severe allergic reaction can set within minutes of consuming a prohibited food, researchers say, and if the person showing symptoms of reaction is not immediately rushed to the hospital, he/she is running a very real death risk.

Previous approaches to treating this condition implied the use of small doses of the allergen that a person was susceptible to, in lengthy therapies, sometimes spanning 3 to 5 years. However, this type of approach often has anaphlyaxis as a side effect, so the practice was deemed ineffective and was discontinued by most physicians.

"We are hoping for a cure that will allow people to eat fish or fruit again. But a significant reduction of sensitivity would already be a great step forwards. The risk of unintentional exposure due to cross-contamination of foods, or while eating in restaurants or at parties, will decrease. This will take away lot of the anxiety that has a negative impact on the quality of life of food allergy sufferers," concludes University of Amsterdam Academic Medical Center researcher, Dr Ronald van Ree, who is also involved with FAST.