Food Challenges

Oral food challenges are an essential part of management in patients with food allergies as this is the best way to determine if the patient is or isn’t allergic to a particular food. These are performed by experienced health care professionals in a controlled environment. The food challenge is usually advised in the following situations:

The patient has had an allergic reaction to a food in the past and the skin prick reaction is low, and this could indicate that the patient may have outgrown the allergy.
The patient has shown a positive skin prick tests or blood test to a food but has never eaten the food.
Some patients with cow’s milk or egg allergy are able to tolerate baked milk and baked egg in cakes/muffins but this needs to be introduced under supervision.

We perform low risk food challenges in our practice and can arrange high risk challenges through the hospital. During the food challenge, the patient will be given increasing amounts of the food being challenged and will be closely monitored throughout the challenge for signs of allergic reaction. The challenge will take a minimum of 4 hours, followed by a wait of 1-2 hours to observe for an allergic reaction.

If you would like to arrange a food challenge or would like to discuss about it, please call us.

Link for frequently asked questions for food challenges:
https://www.allergy.org.au/patients/food-allergy/food-allergy-challenges-faqs

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