Can Your Everyday Foods Make You Sick? Research Findings on Food Allergies in Hong Kong

HK BioTek

In order to find out the trend of Delated Food Allergy in Hong Kong, HK BioTek Limited had revised and analyzed data from the past 10 year studies in 2014. Based on the testing records in the last decade (2004-2013), 2920 reports had been randomly selected for the research. By stressing on the analysis of data in 2005, 2009 and 2013, researcher found out that most of people with food allergy are sensitive on egg (71.94%), dairy products (65.25%) and wheat (37.42%). Besides, referring to a meta-analysis study which done by medical schools in China, result shows that egg, dairy and wheat are investigated as the top 5 most common delayed food allergens in the Chinese population. Obviously, allergic problems (common with egg, dairy and wheat) are happening in both regions.

Table 1. The most common delayed food allergens in Hong Kong and China

Symptoms of delayed food allergy are diverse, ranging from eczema, diarrhea, headache and allergic rhinitis. Taking data from 2013 as an example, allergy-caused symptoms are mainly localized on skin (71%), followed by respiratory system (10%) and then digestive system (6%). Among skin problems, eczema accounts for 44% cases. These data and symptoms have showed the high prevalence of delayed food allergy.

On the other hand, Ms. Yolanda Che from the local organic industry notes that allergen-free foods is getting more and more popular both globally and locally, reflecting the increase in the number of allergy sufferers in the society. With the high popularity of avoiding food allergens to soothe chronic symptoms in Europe and USA, manufacturers actively develop new allergen-free products, making these products to have similar tastes and textures as the ordinary foods.