The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is hosting a virtual public meeting and listening sessions focused on food allergen thresholds and their potential real-world applications.
This event aims to explore how scientifically established thresholds—levels below which most people with allergies are unlikely to react—could enhance food safety, improve labeling accuracy, and support better risk management for the millions of Americans affected by food allergies.
The current 9 major food allergen requirements are milk, eggs, fish, Crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame).
Food allergies continue to rise, and while strict avoidance remains key, advances in science show that many allergic individuals tolerate very low exposures without reactions. The FDA has not yet set official thresholds but has issued related guidance on risk assessments, allergen advisory statements ("may contain"), cross-contact prevention, and exemptions.
9 foods cause 90% of food allergies (click to enlarge the image). The likelihood of a negative oral food challenge is shown in relation to the respective values of skin prick test (SPT) and serum IgE (sIgE).
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