Pediatr Allergy Respir Dis.  2006 Mar;16(1):1-11.

Food Additives and Asthma

Affiliations
  • 1Section of Allergy and Immunology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.

Abstract

PURPOSE: To review the role of food additives in asthma and provide a practical approach for evaluation, diagnosis, and management of additive-induced asthma.
METHODS
Information was gathered from original articles, selected reviews and abstracts published in peer-reviewed journals and from selected textbook chapters, supplemented by the clinical experience of the authors.
RESULTS
In some patients, food additive ingestion can induce bronchospasm or exacerbation of symptoms in patients with chronic asthma. The most implicated agents are sulfites, followed by tartrazine, monosodium glutamate and others. However, geographic variations exist depending on the dietary habits.
CONCLUSION
Food additives are worth considering as possible causes of bronchospasm or worsening of asthma. The medical history may be suggestive, particularly when symptoms occur to commercially prepared foods or to multiple unrelated foods. Physicians should also think of food additives in patients whose asthma is poorly controlled in spite of appropriate routine allergy evaluation, environmental control, and optimal pharmacologic therapy. Except for a few natural additives, allergy skin test and in-vitro tests are unreliable. A titrated oral challenge testing, preferably in a blind fashion would be the definitive diagnostic procedure.

Keyword

Food additives; Asthma; Allergy; Sulfites; Monosodium glutamate; Dyes

MeSH Terms

Asthma*
Bronchial Spasm
Coloring Agents
Diagnosis
Eating
Food Additives*
Food Habits
Humans
Hypersensitivity
Skin Tests
Sodium Glutamate
Sulfites
Tartrazine
Coloring Agents
Food Additives
Sodium Glutamate
Sulfites
Tartrazine
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