Food allergy is an increasing problem in developed countries; prevalence is increasing and therefore its impact on society and health services. The main food allergies are egg, milk and nut allergy and it’s most frequent in children and young adults. Egg allergy has a prevalence of around 1.6% and up to 70% outgrow their allergy as young adults. The diagnose is based on a good clinical history and immune tests such as skin prick test and serum specific immunoglobulin E, although the ‘gold-standard’ is a food challenge. The only safe treatment is food avoidance, new treatments such as specific oral tolerance induction (SOTI) help those patients who don’t outgrow their allergy tolerate egg. This treatment is not exempt of symptoms but allows patients to have less anxiety around food and have less risk of severe reactions with food contamination. Egg SOTI can be performed with different types of food, a novel type is dehydrated egg white, which has the same allergenic potency as ovomucoid and can help standardize treatment protocols.
Keywords: desensitization, food allergy, severity
