At the request of the US Congress, an expert panel of national and international food allergy experts was convened in 2006 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to address issues in food allergy research.

Their report has recently been made available online at the following website: www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/foodAllergy/ReportFoodAllergy.htm

The panel’s recommendations for prioritised research include (1) conduct clinical trials evaluating promising new approaches to preventing and treating food allergies; (2) investigate epidemiological and genetic causes for food allergy; (3) facilitate basic and preclinical research studies on allergen structure and animal models of food allergy; and (4) determine the feasibility of an international registry of food-induced allergic reactions that could be used to facilitate clinical study design.

The report also contains a useful summary of research findings in these areas to date and highlights the vast scientific resources committed to food allergy on an international scale.