Joshi Preeti, Mofidi Shideh, Sicherer Scott H
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2002 Jun;109(6):1019-21. doi: 10.1067/mai.2002.123305.
To avoid allergic reactions, food-allergic consumers depend on the ingredient labels of commercial products. Complex ingredient terminology (eg, casein and whey for milk) and label ambiguities (eg, natural flavor and may contain peanut ) might compromise the ability of patients/parents to determine the safety of particular products.
The purpose of this investigation was to determine the accuracy of label reading among parents of food-allergic children.
Parents of children on restricted diets attending our referral center were asked to review a group of 23 food labels taken from widely available commercial products. For each label, each parent/parent pair was asked to indicate whether the product was safe for the allergic child and, if it was not, which foods restricted from the child's diet were in the product.
There were 91 participants. Peanut was the most commonly restricted food (82 children), followed by milk, egg, soy, and wheat (60, 45, 27 and 16 children, respectively). Identification of milk and soy was the most problematic: only 4 (7%) of 60 parents correctly identified all 14 labels that indicated milk, and only 6 (22%) of 27 parents correctly identified soy protein in 7 products. Peanut was correctly identified in 5 products by 44 (54%) of the 82 parents restricting peanut. Wheat (10 labels) and egg (7 labels) were correctly identified by most parents (14/16 and 42/45, respectively). Correct label identification was associated with prior instruction by a dietitian.
With current labeling practices, most parents are unable to identify common allergenic food ingredients. These results strongly support the need for improved labeling with plain-English terminology and allergen warnings as well as the need for diligent education of patients about reading labels.
为避免过敏反应，对食物过敏的消费者依赖商业产品的成分标签。复杂的成分术语（如牛奶中的酪蛋白和乳清）以及标签的模糊性（如天然香料和可能含有花生）可能会影响患者/家长判断特定产品安全性的能力。
本调查的目的是确定食物过敏儿童家长阅读标签的准确性。
要求在我们转诊中心就诊的接受限制饮食的儿童家长查看一组从广泛可得的商业产品中选取的23种食品标签。对于每个标签，要求每位家长/家长对指出该产品对过敏儿童是否安全，如果不安全，产品中含有儿童饮食中受限的哪些食物。
有91名参与者。花生是最常受限的食物（82名儿童），其次是牛奶、鸡蛋、大豆和小麦（分别为60名、45名、27名和16名儿童）。牛奶和大豆的识别问题最大：60名家长中只有4名（7%）正确识别了所有14个标明牛奶的标签，27名家长中只有6名（22%）正确识别了7种产品中的大豆蛋白。82名限制食用花生的家长中有44名（54%）在5种产品中正确识别出了花生。大多数家长正确识别了小麦（10个标签）和鸡蛋（7个标签）（分别为14/16和42/45）。正确的标签识别与营养师先前的指导有关。
按照目前的标签做法，大多数家长无法识别常见的致敏食物成分。这些结果有力地支持了需要用通俗易懂的英语术语和过敏原警告来改进标签，以及需要对患者进行认真的标签阅读教育。
