When too much undigested lactose reaches the large intestine, it can cause gas or diarrhea. But people with lactose intolerance don't have to avoid all dairy products. And most lactose-intolerant people don't even have to give up milk. These sulfur-containing additives are used as preservatives in dried fruits, wines, and dehydrated potato products like mashed potato flakes. If they eat a food that contains sulfites, their throats may constrict and cut off the flow of air.
Sulfite sensitivity can develop at any age.
More than 90 percent of them occurred in restaurants or other places outside the home. But the number of reported reactions has averaged only about ten a year since 1996, and no deaths have been recorded since 1990. That steep decline was no accident. In 1986, the Feds met CSPI half way. That got sulfites out of the hands of restaurant chefs, who may have been using too much on the salad-bar ingredients.