Immunological aspects of allergy and anaphylaxis part 48

Diagnosis of food allergy and intolerance

The gold standard of food allergy testing is the double-blinded, placebo-controlled food challenge, which will establish whether the patient is truly allergic to a specific food. Because this method of testing for food allergies is time consuming, expensive, and potentially dangerous, in vivo testing is usually performed in food allergy centers. Occacionally, straight food challenges may be tried when the chances of reactions are minimal and the serum IgE (radioallergosorbent test, or RAST) specific for the allergen is low or negative.