Prevalence of self-reported allergies to food in Australia as assessed by Internet-based questionnaires

To the Editor: Reported adverse reactions to food, which are common in many developed countries, can be produced by a wide variety of mechanisms. However, a low proportion of these are true food allergies.1 Recent Australian data show an increase in hospital presentations for food-induced anaphylaxis,2,3 but there are no Australian population data on the prevalence of either food allergies or adverse reactions to foods. Waiting lists for allergy services continue to remain long, and it is not known whether this is due to an increase in the prevalence of true food allergy or simply an increase in perceived food allergy.