The Australian Institute of Environmental Health recognised Maribyrnong Council's food allergen information kit last month with its leadership and strategic planning award for 2007. The kit was launched in May and includes information about food allergens and food intolerances.

Previously it was thought that around three-quarters of children with milk and egg allergies would outgrow the condition by the time they start school, if not before. According to new research from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, milk and egg allergies now appear to be more persistent and harder to outgrow.

New research conducted at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, USA has shown allergies to peanuts and other foods are showing up in children at younger ages than previously found.

In theory all proteins have the potential to become allergens, but a recent study from the Institute of Food Research in Norwich and the Medical University of Vienna  has found that in practice the ability of animal food proteins to act as allergens depends on their evolutionary distance from a human equivalent.

A team of British scientists, headed by Dr Claudio Nicoletti, at the Institute of Food Research team in Norwich believe they have identified a key molecule responsible for food allergies. The molecule Interleukin-12 (IL-12) was found to be absent in mice bred to be allergic to peanuts.

A specialist allergy practice in the ACT has reported that food allergies in Australian children (aged 0-5 years) referred to it have risen 12-fold since 1995, from 11 positive cases in 1995 to 138  in 2006.