Buckwheat allergy cases are rare.  However, a 57-year-old businessman in Taiwan has nearly been killed three times in the past three years after unwittingly ingesting food items containing small amounts of buckwheat flour. 

The man was first struck by a buckwheat reaction in October 2005 after eating a bowl of buckwheat noodles in China. Within half an hour of consuming the noodles, the man suffered an itchy throat and tongue and a skin rash. He then fell unconscious from shock and was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors suspected that he had suffered an allergic reaction to buckwheat flour.

In 2006 in Taiwan, the man again went into shock after eating buns containing buckwheat flour, and again he required emergency treatment. He fell victim a third time in China in April this year while being entertained by friends at a restaurant. Afterward, they discovered that the chef at the restaurant unwittingly added buckwheat flour into regular wheat flour to make the noodles.