Purpose of review: The goal of this review is to present an updated summary of the natural history of major childhood and adult food allergies and report recent advances in potential treatments for food allergy.
Recent findings: The most common childhood food allergies are typically outgrown by adolescence or adulthood. However, peanut/tree nut allergies appear to more commonly persist into adulthood. Adults can develop new IgE-mediated food allergies; the most common is oral allergy syndrome. There are multiple different approaches being tried as possible treatments for food allergy. The prevalence of food allergy appears to be increasing but the varied approaches to treatment are being actively pursued such that an approved modality may not be too far in the future.
Keywords: Adult food allergy; Food allergy; Food immunotherapy; Peanut allergy; Specific IgE.