When it comes to food allergies, avoidance is key. However, while it may be easy to avoid foods you know you are allergic to, oftentimes allergic reactions occur when we are unaware that a potential allergen exists.
For example, a new study is demonstrating this to be true in the case of children who have common allergies to foods such as wheat, eggs, soy, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish, and also have pets. This is because some of those same allergens are also common ingredients in pet food.
Published in the Journal of Allergy Clinical Immunology, the study showed that of the 452 surveyed dog foods and 295 surveyed cat foods, 86.9% of them had at least one major allergen present. In addition, 43.9% of the foods tested had at least two major allergens present. According to the study, the frequency of individual foods in the screened pet foods was as follows: wheat 47.9%, egg 36.9%, fish 28.9%, soy 28.1%, milk 7.9%, shellfish 0.5%, peanut 0.3%, and tree nuts 0%.
Among dog foods, the most common food allergens were wheat, at 50.6%, egg at 33.2%, and soy at 25.7%, while among cat foods, the most common were fish (45.8%), wheat (43.7%), and egg (42.7%).