Food Allergies in Iceland – a review

Food allergies have been on the rise in the Western world and are now considered to have become a serious public health problem. Iceland is no exception. Little was known about the prevalence of food allergies in Iceland until the end of the last century. At that time, and at the beginning of this century, Icelanders were involved in extensive international research on food allergies. The first study was in 18-month-old children, which showed food allergies in 1.85% of the children, with egg allergies the most common. In The European Community Respiratory Health Survey IgE antibodies for 6 foods were positive in 1.8% and when measured for 24 foods, they were positive in 7.7% of the participants. The EuroPrevall food research was conducted about 10 years later. Among children aged 7-10 years in Iceland, 11% had IgE antibodies when tested for 24 foods and 1.9% had food allergies, most of them to eggs. Among 20-54 years old Icelandic adults, 6.55% had IgE antibodies to the same foods and 1.4% had allergies. When newborns were followed up in Iceland, 1.86% were found to have a confirmed food allergy at the age of one year, and at the age of two, 0.62% were allergic to milk and 1.47% were allergic to eggs. At 6 - 10 years of age, food allergies in 8 cities in Europe were 1.4-3.8%, but results for individual cities are not available. All these results target IgE-mediated allergies. In this review article, we review the main research on food allergies that Icelanders have participated in.