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When you think you are allergic to food, the best thing to do is go to your GP. He or she can do some tests or send you to a specialist.
What tests can you expect? Well, they can take a blood sample, do skin tests or even let you eat the suspected food!
 The easy one: the blood test
If you are allergic your body makes what we call antibodies to food. These antibodies can be measured in your blood.
The good part: it only takes one blood sample
The bad part: sometimes the blood test is not sensitive enough and you have to wait a few days for the results.
 One step further: the skin prick test
Most specialists will do a skin test, usually on your lower arm, sometimes on your back. Sounds painful but is really not so bad.
There are two ways of performing a skin test with food: - they put a drop of food extract on your skin, take a lancet and make a puncture hole right in the middle of the drop.
- if the extract is not available they can use fresh food. They put the lancet in the food first, then in your skin
The good part: this test picks up most allergies and you have the results after 15 minutes. So it takes a lot less time than other tests.
The bad part: the skin prick test can hurt a little.
Good to know: if you have eczema or another skin condition, it is sometimes not possible to use this test!
The dietician
A dietician can be very important in identifying food that evokes a reaction. But it takes a bit of work from the both of you! The dietician will ask you what you have eaten the last week, which symptoms you had and how long after eating it. And by telling what you have been eating, they mean literally everything including the brands!
Food diary
Sometimes a dietician will ask you to keep what is called a food diary: in this diary you write down everything you eat and drink, including snacks, the time that you eat it, brand names, the time you get symptoms and which medication you have taken and at what time.
This can be very helpful in identifying the offending food substances.
Final step: eating it
Sometimes, even after the blood and the skin test, it is still not clear which food product has caused the reaction. In that case, a doctor can decide to do what is called an oral provocation. That means you get to eat the product(s) they suspect!
This is usually done in hospital. It can be done in what is called the open way – you see what you eat. Or it can be done in a blinded way: the food is hidden in another food or in a capsule so you can not recognize or taste it. And then, it is just wait and see if anything happens.
Scary, but better to eat a little in hospital with every help available than by accident at home alone…
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