Some airlines no longer offer peanut snack because some passengers are hypersensitive to that food. Between 2 and 4 percent of children have confirmed food allergies, but many outgrow them by age 3. Only 1 to 2 percent of adults are food allergic.
Food allergies cause various symptoms in the skin, digestive, and respiratory systems.
There is no treatment for food allergy other than avoiding the food in question, but this isn't always as simple as it sounds. If you are allergic to eggs, for instance, you have to avoid everything containing eggs. Besides carefully checking the labels of all commercially prepared foods, this also means speaking to your doctor about vaccines made with egg residues, which include injections for flu, yellow fever, mumps and measles. The largest ever study of fatalities due to food allergies shows that stricter labeling requirements for food products and better education may save lives. Since only five of the 32 fatalities investigated occurred in the home, educational efforts need to reach beyond the individual with the allergy and his or her family to primary care physicians, emergency medical staff, manufacturers and the general public.