GLORIA resources for Food Allergy

Global Resources In Allergy (GLORIA™), the flagship program of the World Allergy Organization (WAO), has an educational module dedicated to food allergy that may be useful for training staff.

The GLORIA curriculum is designed to educate medical professionals worldwide, through local, state, regional and national presentations within the United States. International GLORIA provides globally relevant teaching materials to promote the development of the specialty of allergy and to address different aspects of allergy-related patient care.

There are currently 12 GLORIA powerpoint educational modules created from established guidelines and recommendations. Module 6 is dedicated to food allergy, providing an extensive review related to topics, from pathology and mechanisms of IgE-mediated and T-cell-mediated food allergy to diagnosis and clinical management. This program highlights the main pathogenic food allergens in adults and children, describes the differences between IgE-mediated, cell-mediated and mixed IgE- and cell-mediated food-related diseases in different organ systems, discusses the diagnosis of food allergy and the limitations of diagnostic techniques and describes food allergy treatments.

While not directed at the food industry, some of the information provided in this 97-page module may be useful for staff training purposes. Brief discussion of the issues with dietary elimination of food allergens is included, with respect to interpretation of allergen labels on pre-packaged foods, cross-contamination and use of compound ingredients.

The food allergy module, along with other GLORIA educational materials, can be downloaded from the WAO website.