Are Hyperallergenic Foods Worth the Risk?

Sharkles, you and I visited a little bit about the title of the blog. Now I am confused even further than before.

Within the text of the site you link to, the phrase "hyperallergenic product" appears. This is a phrase apparently coined by Rohan Ameratunga and SeeTarm Woon to describe a drink product where the beta-lactoglobulin content was around 3g/l, that is three-times that of cow's milk.

So, there are products lurking out there that are, truly, HYPERallergenic. That is, an allergen is actually boosted to the point where it needs to have a word added to our already ridiculous inventory of lexemes.

Your question: "Do you think this practice should continue?" From what I read here, I would vote to discontinue. I doubt all of the information required for an informed conclusion is here, but the story is compelling.

HYPER-allergenic foods should be discontinued immediately!

I believe the test in question has pretty well proven that this idea is way too risky, certainly too risky to be putting known allergens into the public food supply without being identified on the label!

If a person is allergic to something, they can avoid the food in question or they can choose to eat a little if they are willing to take the risk of a reaction and are prepared to respond with emergency measures.

But nobody should be permitted to make the decision that another person should be exposed to that risk, ESPECIALLY without their foreknowledge and opportunity to prepare for an emergency! The notion that exposure will reduce allergenicity is not consistent with the results, and the risks are self-evident.

I agree that the title has become misleading--indeed, opposite to the relevant concern.

I general I'm not too worried about food additives and modifications, if full information is given, such as on food labels.

(That is a simplification; there are still questions of where to draw what lines.)

I sent a PM to Sharkles before I posted; the original title read 'Hyperallergenic', in lieu of 'Hypoallergenic'. I visited with her before I read the link where the term is explained. I had guessed 'hyper' to be a typo from somewhere, as there is no such word in any dictionary I could find. I even mentioned the correction being done before Editor Crankshaft saw it!

Sharkles, I hope you don't think this an attempt to toss you under the bus. Certainly was not my intention.

As a food allergy sufferer, I'm glad to see that this report baffles others, too. This seems to me to be a case of repeated poor editing. The linked article only once used the word hypoallergenic and that was a quotation. I suspect that the author or editor of the linked article thought that hyperallergenic and hypoallergenic were synonyms instead of antonyms. The article makes no sense to me with the real meaning of all of the words presented.

Normally it is a waste of time to comment on an article that one believes must be translated to another meaning than as presented, but since this topic is very near to me I will comment anyway.

One of the commonly practiced treatments of allergy sufferers is to administer a gradually increased hypoallergenic dose of the irritant. The goal being to desensitize the patient to irritant levels that are commonly encountered. This does not cure the allergic sensitivity, it just moves the threshold. This must be done in a supervised manor for several critical reasons. Everyone who is sensitive to an allergen has a different initial threshold. The severity of the response to the allegen also varies with each patient. An occaisional complication to this treatment sometimes happens when the trigger threshold successfully increases but the severity of the response doesn't similarly scale. So where eating one shrimp would earlier just cause hives and five shrimps would be fatal to an allergy sufferer this treatment might successfully move the trigger threshold to six shimp consumed but six is quickly fatal.

Hypoallergenic desensitization is a recognized medical treatment for allergy sufferers. Like all medical treatments it must be done under proper supervision to scale the dosage and to look for side effects. Like all medical treatments it will not be the right procedure for every patient.