What’s the difference between food allergies and food intolerances?
Food allergies
When a person is allergic to a specific food, it triggers an immune response that doesn’t occur in the majority of people. Allergic reactions are usually localised to a particular part of the body. Symptoms may include asthma, eczema, flushing, swelling of the tissues (usually the lips) or difficulty breathing.
The severity of the immune response varies in individuals. However, if someone has a severe food allergy they may suffer an anaphylactic shock (rapid fall in blood pressure and severe shock) which can be life-threatening.
Food allergies can be caused by any food but the most common foods are milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, shellfish and fish.
Sometimes children grow out of their allergy during their childhood but others are present for life.
Food intolerances
When a person is food intolerant, they will have a reaction to specific foods but these do not necessarily result in an immune response.
Though not generally life-threatening, intolerances can be extremely unpleasant and can result in a variety of symptoms such as constipation, diarrhoea, stomach bloating, headaches or skin rashes. These symptoms may not necessarily appear directly after eating the food and may take a few hours to develop.
If you think you may have a food allergy or intolerance, it is important to seek medical advice for proper diagnosis. A dietician will advise a diet plan to avoid the foods that are causing the allergy or intolerance. These websites are useful sources of further information:
How we can help....
When developing new foods, wherever possible we avoid the use of ingredients that are commonly known to cause allergies, particularly in foods where you wouldn’t expect to find them e.g. milk powder in sliced ham.
Where we can, we also provide a choice within our ranges for customers who wish to avoid particular ingredients e.g. gluten free Christmas pudding.
We offer ‘free from’ lists. These are available to download from the foods section of our website, in stores and from Customer Services.
Allergen labelling
If a product contains any of the following, it will be listed within the 'contains' box on the back of the pack:
Eggs; cow's milk; goat's/ewe's/buffalo's milk; gluten; wheat; shellfish; soya; nuts; sesame products; a source of phenylalanine; salt substitute potassium chloride; sulphites; mustard; celery
For example,
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