Soy is one of the eight most common food allergens. Soy oil is frequently used in food preparation and those with allergies need to know if it is okay to eat foods cooked in soy oil and what foods you should avoid if you’re allergic to soy.

We asked Dr. Melanie Downs, an assistant professor with the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, to help us understand some of the science about food what causes food allergies and what foods to avoid to be safe.

The good news: “There is no need for soy-allergic individuals to avoid soy oil. Soy-allergic individuals may wish to avoid cold-pressed or expeller-pressed soy oil but this type of oil is rarely used as an ingredient in processed foods,” Dr. Downs said.

She explained that oil is usually safe because the part of the food that triggers an allergy is in the protein portion of the soybean.

“The food components responsible for soy allergies, like nearly all food allergies, are the naturally occurring proteins in the food. Foods can have a number of different allergenic proteins, and allergic individuals may react to one or more of these allergens,” Dr. Downs said.

Soy oil is safe because it has been processed.

“Soy oil used for cooking and frying has almost always been highly-refined, and these oils contain extremely small amounts of protein,” she said.

She added that studies of people who are soy-allergic have found that highly-refined soy oil is safe for allergic individuals. This is why highly-refined oils are exempt from allergen labeling in the U.S. under the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004.

However, if you have a soy allergy, it’s important to carefully read labels.

“Allergic individuals should avoid products with other types of soy-derived ingredients declared on the label. It is also important to note that FALCPA allows manufacturers to declare allergens in one of two ways on the product label, in the ingredient statement or in a “Contains” statement. If a product has a Contains Soy statement, allergic consumers likely want to avoid that product because the ingredient statement itself may not identify all soy-derived ingredients in plain language,” Dr. Downs said.

If you think you have a food allergy or know you do, Dr. Downs said it’s important to talk to a health care provider and follow their advice.

“Some consumers with histories of serious allergic reactions do not seek advice from an allergist and do not carry the life-saving drug, epinephrine. They should do both. Soy is less frequently involved in severe reactions but in those small number of cases, getting expert advice and carrying epinephrine are important steps.”

For those with a soy allergy, it is usually safe to eat foods that have been prepared in soy oil. Most commercial soy oil is highly refined and the allergy triggering compounds in the protein have been removed.

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We’ve received several questions and comments related to the article Does Palm Oil Cause Allergic Reactions?

Some of the questions have been about what foods contain palm oil. The World Wildlife Fund notes that palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil in the world. An interactive chart shows products that contain palm oil and why. It is used in foods such as bread, instant noodles, cookies and chocolate, as well as other products including lipstick and detergent.

Many questions have centered around possible allergic reactions to palm oil and questions about refined oils. We reached out to Dr. Steve Taylor, co-founder of the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program, and professor at the University of Nebraksa-Lincoln.

Palm oil is unlikely to cause an allergic reaction, Dr. Taylor said, but some people told us about having reactions such as stomach pain, hives, rash or indigestion when they eat foods that contain it. “If consumers believe they are adversely affected by ingestion of palm oil, then they can avoid eating it,” he advised.

Denise sent this question: “Is there soy in palm oil? I’m allergic to soy.”

Dr. Taylor said there should never be soy in palm oil or palm kernel oil. This leads to another question: If someone is allergic to soy, would soy oil cause a reaction?

Dr. Taylor: “Highly refined soybean oil does not cause allergic reactions.  When Congress passed the Food Allergen Labeling & Consumer Protection Act in 2004, they exempted highly refined oils from the source labeling requirements. (Some companies still use ‘Contains Soy’ on products where the only apparent source of soy is soy oil, but that is not required).

What is highly refined oil?

Dr. Taylor: “Congress did not define what is meant by ‘highly refined.’ But the consensus would surely be that solvent extracted, neutralized, bleached and deodorized oil is highly refined (so-called RBD oil by some in industry although that is not a labeling term). Published clinical evidence exists that highly refined peanut, soy and sunflower seed oils do not cause allergic reactions when ingested by peanut-, soy-, or sunflower seed-allergic patients, respectively.  I expect that is what gave Congress the impetus to incorporate the exemption into the law.

“Most soybean oils on the market or incorporated into foods are highly refined. Cold-pressed or expeller-pressed soybean oil does exist as an alternate oil in many retail groceries and supermarkets. Cold-pressed or expeller-pressed soybean oil would not likely be classified by FDA as highly refined. Consumers would typically find this oil in the natural foods section of the store. In my expert opinion, soy-allergic consumers may wish to avoid cold-pressed soybean oil although I am not aware of any consumer complaints regarding reactions to such oil from soy-allergic consumers. The soy oil used in various foods as a food ingredient is virtually always highly refined as cold-pressed oil is more expensive and has a beany flavor that is not desirable for most uses. Thus, I think that the only likely exposure to cold-pressed soy oil is through the alternate oils sold in natural foods section of grocery stores but I cannot completely guarantee that some ‘natural’ products might not use this type of oil.”

As noted before, food allergies are caused by proteins. What does that mean for products like palm oil or soy oil?

Dr. Taylor: The allergens in soybean are found in the protein fraction of the soybean seed. The proteins are removed during the refining process. That is why highly refined soybean oil is safe. Cold-pressed soybean oil has low levels of residual soy protein that have some potential to elicit allergic reactions in highly soy-allergic consumers and that is why I advocate avoidance of such oils.

“Palm and palm kernel oil should contain no soy protein. Palm and palm kernel oils should also not contain any soy oil. Thus these oils should present no risk to soy-allergic consumers.

“Soy-allergic consumers should be able to safely consume highly refined soy oil. However, some allergists may suggest that their soy-allergic patients should avoid soy oil. I do not wish to counteract that medical advice because I am clearly not familiar with each individual case and I am not a physician. Thus if a soy-allergic consumer wishes to avoid soy oil, then that is their privilege.”

Is there anything else people with allergies should be aware of regarding oils?

Dr. Taylor: “I should be clear that in some applications, oil mixtures are used for frying or other purposes.  Such mixed oils can contain oil from numerous source including palm, palm kernel, soybean, canola, corn, sunflower seed, etc. Typically all of these oils are highly refined. Because of the source labeling exemption for highly refined oils, it may not always be easy to identify when soy oil is used in such mixtures. In my opinion, this practice has no adverse health consequences to soy-allergic consumers. But it can increase the difficulty of avoiding soy oil for those consumers who wish to do so.”

Palm oil is found in many foods. Highly refined oils are not likely to cause an allergic reaction and in most cases can be safely consumed. If you believe you are experiencing an allergic reaction related to any particular foods, visit an allergist or physician.

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Over the past 10 years the prevalence of peanut allergies in American children has nearly doubled, and about 2 percent of children have a peanut allergy. While there are many theories and speculations, it’s unclear exactly why allergies have increased.

Now, the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology is suggesting new guidelines about introducing peanuts into an infant’s diet. New research shows that introducing peanuts around 4 to 6 months of age can reduce the risk of the child developing a peanut allergy.

The Learning Early About Peanut study (LEAP) concluded that the early introduction of peanuts dramatically decreased the risk of developing peanut allergy. Of the children that were given peanuts as an infant, only 1.9 percent were allergic at the age of 5 compared to 13.7 percent of the children in the group that avoided peanuts.

Dr. Stephen Taylor, Best Food Facts expert and Professor and Co-Director of the University of Nebraska Food Allergy Research & Resource Program, states, “It seems like a good idea to avoid allergens in food, but that may not be the best course. Some evidence suggests that early introduction of certain kinds of solid foods into the baby’s’ diet may actually promote tolerance of those foods, rather than the development of food allergies. The recently completed research in England does indicate that early ingestion of peanuts may help to prevent the development of peanut allergy, but parents should seek advice from their pediatrician or allergist because there are some important caveats to that advice.”

The LEAP results have prompted the AAAAI to give guidance to assist healthcare providers across the globe in their clinical decisions. The new guidelines reflect collaboration between a dozen medical organizations from countries including the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Australia, as well as the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and the World Allergy Organization. These recommendations include:

• Given the LEAP findings, high-risk infants should be introduced to peanuts or peanut-containing products between the ages of 4-to-11 months of age. High-risk is defined as those having severe eczema and/or an existing food allergy.
• Infants who show signs of eczema or egg allergy within the first 4-to-6 months of life should be tested for peanut allergy with a skin prick test and possibly a medically-supervised peanut challenge. Families with such a child should work with a physician to facilitate safe, early introduction of peanuts if possible.
• Parents of children who have fewer risk factors for peanut allergy are not advised to delay giving their children peanuts. This has been the case for several years.
• Though LEAP details many aspects of how peanuts can be introduced, physicians should note that it does not discuss alternative doses of peanuts, the minimal length of treatment necessary to induce tolerance, the potential risks if peanut consumption is stopped early, or what happens if the infant does not consume peanuts on a regular basis.
• These guidelines do not apply to older children or those with existing peanut allergy. These only apply to infants who have never eaten peanuts. People with existing allergies must continue to carry epinephrine.
• These guidelines also stress the importance of intervention by healthcare providers rather than potentially dangerous parent-conducted interventions.  

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Unfiltered honey can contain pollens, types and amounts of which vary depending on what flowers are visited by the bees, Dr. Taylor said. While it has been suggested that eating such honey might serve as a low-dose form of immunotherapy to treat pollen allergies, the pollen exposure from honey is not quantitatively consistent. Because of this, Dr. Taylor believes that clinical results from a trial would also be inconsistent.

Dr. Taylor warns that there are some risks to this practice, as honey allergy can occur due to its various components. Filtered honey is more widely consumed and does not possess the same risks, but it also does not have the potentially protective pollens found in unfiltered honey.

There is some evidence that honey might be therapeutic for pollen allergies, but honey is not known to be a preventative approach. People are not born with allergies but develop them over time with exposure to certain foods and environments, with younger infants having a greater chance of developing food allergies because foods are novel to the immune system at that time.

So if honey can’t help, what will? The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology’s recommended treatments are:

• Avoidance
• Eliminating or decreasing exposure to the irritants or allergens that trigger your symptoms
• Medication
• Immunotherapy (helps reduce symptoms in about 85 percent of people)

It’s best to consult your doctor on which method is best for you!

_{Source: American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology}

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To answer this, we reached out to Denneal Jamison-McClung, Associate Director – Biotechnology program at University of California-Davis.

Dr. Jamison-McClung:

There are only a few GM crops found in the fruit and vegetable aisles of the supermarket – squash, papaya and sweet corn. All of the other fruits and vegetables are not “GMO.”

Given what we know about the specific modifications made to GM squash, papaya or sweet corn, it is extremely unlikely that these foods would cause an allergic reaction. Food allergens have common characteristics (specific amino acid sequence, protein size/shape, abundance in the food, etc.) and all GM crops are screened to make sure that their proteins do not share characteristics with known allergens (Goodman, 2008). Specific techniques to assess allergenic potential in new crops, both GM and conventional, include detailed bioinformatic comparisons, immunologic assays and protein analyses (Houston 2013, Picariello 2011).

In the case of GM squash and GM papaya, both were developed because of viral diseases that threatened the crops. This gets a bit sciencey, but bear with me. To address that viral disease, genes that encode viral RNAs were incorporated. When the plant makes these RNAs, it triggers a cellular defense response at the start of infection (RNA homology-dependent gene silencing) that is somewhat like the immune response a vaccinated person would have against a specific disease (Morroni 2008, Collinge, 2010). In any case, neither of these GM crops expresses a GM protein with allergenic properties.

Sweet corn is engineered to express Bt protein in order to resist insect herbivores. Bt protein is safe for human consumption and is widely used by organic farmers as a spray. Bt proteins are non-allergenic, with the protein breaking down in our stomach acid within ~30 seconds (Adel-Patient 2011, Fonseca 2012).

It does sound like this reader may have a food allergy. My suspicion is that a common food allergen, such as egg in the salad dressing, may have been the cause of the reaction. The eight most common food allergens are milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat (Mayo Clinic). I became allergic to eggs in adulthood, which was a surprise, as they were a significant part of my diet growing up. Unfortunately for me, eggs are found in all mayonnaise-based salad dressings and many other processed foods, making them difficult to avoid. People experiencing food allergy reactions, such as hives and rash, should follow up with a physician to receive testing for a panel of common food allergens. It is not possible for a medical provider to visually inspect a rash and pinpoint a specific allergen that caused the reaction – immunological tests, such as an IgE serum test, must be performed.

_References:

• _{Adel-Patient 2011 – Immunological and Metabolomic Impacts of Administration of Cry1Ab Protein and MON 810 Maize in Mouse}
• _{Collinge 2010 – Engineering Pathogen Resistance in Crop Plants: Current Trends and Future Prospects}
• _{Goodman 2008 – Allergenicity assessment of genetically modified crops – what makes sense?}
• _{Fonseca 2012 – Characterization of maize allergens – MON810 vs. its non-transgenic counterpart}
• _{Houston 2013 – Quantitation of Soybean Allergens Using Tandem Mass Spectrometry}
• _{Morroni 2008 – Twenty Years of Transgenic Plants Resistant to Cucumber mosaic virus}
• _{Picariello 2011 – The frontiers of mass spectrometry-based techniques in food allergenomics}

_{“Canola Bokeh” by Leigh Schilling is licensed under CC BY.}

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Reader question: “Chickens and cows are often fed GM corn and soy – how will they show up in eggs and milk?”

To answer that question, we reached out to two experts, Sally Mackenzie, PhD, Ralph and Alice Raikes Professor in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Denneal Jamison McClung, PhD, Associate Director of the Biotechnology Program University of California-Davis.

Sally Mackenzie, PhD:

First, it’s important to note that genetically modified crops have been in the American food supply for over 15 years and there has never been a single food allergy associated with the particular proteins that are introduced by GM. Not one. This is not surprising, however, because genetic engineering regulations in the U.S. require that such tests be conducted before the product is ever on the market. Food allergy tests are not difficult; they are a standardized technology applied regularly in development of GM products.

To explain genetic modification, it simply introduces a new protein to the plant. Proteins are digested and the amino acids (from the proteins) are absorbed into the digestive system. So, there is virtually no way that the GM protein would ever be recognizable by the human system after it has passed through the chicken or cow that ate the GM corn or soybeans. If the protein is not a human allergen in its intact state, there is no reasonable way that it would become an allergen after ingestion by a cow.

Lastly, science has shown us that GM products are not dangerous; there is no evidence of their being dangerous for human or animal health in the many, many years of testing that have been involved. I know of no reasonable and respected scientist in the U.S. or Europe with expertise in GMO technology who believes GM products to be unsafe for human health.

Denneal Jamison-McClung, PhD:

It’s a good question. The nutritional composition of GM crops approved for food and feed have been well-characterized. Through many animal feeding studies, GM feed has not been found to cause physiological or other changes in animals. The allergen content and nutritional profile of milk, meat and eggs obtained from animals consuming GM feed will not be different from animals consuming comparable conventional feed.

Why not? Well, the digestive tracts of animals break down nucleic acids (genes) and proteins into biological building blocks (nucleotides and amino acids), whether these molecules are derived from GM or conventional feed. Movement of whole GM nucleic acids and proteins from GM feed into the milk, meat and eggs of animals that eat GM feed is not physiologically possible.

If you have a question for the experts, please let us know!

_{“Fresh Eggs” by Jake Wasdin is licensed under CC BY 2.0.}

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Does drinking milk and using other dairy products tend to cause allergies in children?

Dr. Taylor: “Milk allergies, yes of course. It is impossible to become allergic to milk if you are never exposed. The allergy is caused by drinking milk from a different species, i.e. cow’s milk.”

Why are we the only mammals that drink milk after we are weaned from our mothers?

Dr. Macrina: “The simple answer is: because we can. It is a food that’s available to us. During the hunter-gatherer times people consumed what was available. With the domestication of cattle, milk was another product that became available. Milk is a nutritious food – in addition to calcium, it contains a good amount of magnesium and potassium, two minerals that most people don’t consume in sufficient quantities. It also contains high-quality protein and some of the fatty acids in milk have health-promoting effects. If you’re trying to reduce fat intake, you can always opt for low fat or skim varieties.”

If you wish to learn more, or have questions, feel free to submit a question to the experts!

“Milk Splash” by Benjamin Horn is licensed under CC BY.

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