Soy reactions increase during birch pollen season

Monday, 18 October 2010 08:52

Four children who experienced unforeseen and severe allergic reactions after ingestion of soymilk during the peak birch pollen season have been studied in an attempt to characterise these reactions.

Each child was allergic to birch pollen and found to have high IgE responses to the PR-10 proteins from birch and soybean, Bet v 1 and Gly m 4. The reactions were described as soybean-dependant pollen-food cross-reactions, and the authors of the case report expect there to be an increase in the number of similar cases as soy drinks are promoted for health purposes.

Reference: Kosma et al. 2010. Acta Pediatrica, DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2010.02049.x