Food allergies ‘could be eradicated within ten years’

Treatments to eradicate a number of food allergies could be on the market within a decade, scientists have claimed.

Experts attending the British Association Festival of Science in Norwich yesterday were told that by using genetic engineering techniques, researchers had been able to modify the proteins in food which cause allergic reactions.

Scientists hope that they will be able to make the altered molecules safe enough to use in the development of drugs that fight allergies via the body’s immune system.

Around one in 70 people in the UK currently suffer from some form of food allergy, with foods such as milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, shellfish, fish and cashew nuts carrying a particularly high risk of reaction.

At present, the only treatment available to those who suffer from food allergies is to avoid the food that they are allergic to or take rescue medication to combat the effect of a reaction if they are unlucky enough to come into contact with a type of food that disagrees with them.

Dr Ronald van Ree, of the University of Amsterdam, who is leading research into the development of safe food allergy treatments, said yesterday that a cure for sufferers was within sight.

“By identifying the molecules that have the allergic effect we can develop recombinant treatments for food allergies that have the potential to be safe and effective,” he said.

“Some of these molecules have been found and we are very close with others. I am convinced we will have these treatments ready to use within ten years,” he added.

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