Can You Identify These Allergies?
Can You Identify These Allergies?
Working in the hospitality industry often involves handling, preparing, and serving food. One of the most important considerations in food hygiene is an understanding of food allergies and how they can affect your customers and guests. This quick quiz can help you test (and expand!) your knowledge of allergens.
Which food allergy is most common in children?
There are a number of allergies that children commonly experience in terms of foods, but one of them the most common by a large percentage: Peanuts.
Which of the following foods can cause severe allergic reactions?
- Peanuts
- Milk
- Fish
- Shellfish
- All of the above
The answer is all of the above. In fact, nearly any food could cause a severe allergic reaction, although some are more common than others. All of the allergies listed above are relatively common.
If you’re allergic to peanuts, you’re allergic to all nuts. True or False?
False. While many people are allergic to both tree nuts and peanuts, that is caused by the individual having two different allergies. Peanuts are more closely related to legumes than they are to tree nuts. It is important, however, to ensure that the food in question hasn’t been processed in a factory that handles a food to which one is allergic.
Milk allergy and lactose intolerance are the same thing. True or False?
People with milk allergies and people with lactose intolerance all experience negative effects when they consume milk and many other dairy products. But that doesn’t mean that they have the same condition. People with lactose intolerance have difficulty digesting the lactose in milk, while those who are allergic to milk have a histamine reaction to proteins in milk.
People are more likely to be allergic to food additives than to foods themselves. True or False?
False. The vast majority of people that experience a food allergy are allergic to milk, shellfish, fish, peanuts, wheat, stone fruit (peaches, etc.), or soy, not to sweeteners, dyes, or other additives.
Some allergies can disappear over time. True or False?
True. Not only can some allergies disappear over time, but a majority of them detected in small children disappear as they grow older. Milk, wheat, and peanut allergies often disappear in children by the time they turn five years old. Allergies can also appear over time. Adults are susceptible to developing brand new allergies as they age.
