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Evidence has suggested that elimination diets based on food‐specific IgG measurement can lead to improvements in chronic ill health symptoms. This paper aims to review the evidence from studies on food‐specific IgG measurement and dietary change.

A literature review of studies on the putative role for food‐specific IgG‐based elimination diets was undertaken.

The use of fully standardised clinically evaluated food‐specific IgG tests as a basis for elimination diet could lead to a considerable improvement in many patients' quality of life.

This unique review captures evidence for a viable alternative to the time consuming and expensive elimination diet/food challenge approach.

Functional disorders caused by food intolerance (FI) are prevalent, thus it is important to analyze the FI of healthy people to common foods so as to guide the people for eating the healthy foods. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

In total, 88,436 healthy persons including 60,902 males and 27,534 females at the age ranging from 20 to 70 years old were subjected a normal physical examination. In total, 14 kinds of food-specific IgG antibodies were detected by enzyme-linked immunesorbent assay.

The total positive rate of 14 FIs was as high as 64.16 percent. Five kinds of foods (egg, crab, cod, shrimp and milk) accounted for 84.51 percent of the total positive rate. In more than one kind of FIs, egg took the largest proportion than the others and the proportion was 58.54 percent. The second was crab with a positive rate of 56.19 percent. The antibody positive rate of any food in one kind of FIs was significantly lower than that in more than one kind of FIs (χ²=629.35, p<0.001). Also, younger age subjects displayed the higher positive rate than the older age groups. In addition, there was no significant difference on FI between male and female subjects.

The results would not only prompt us to pay more attention to FI in daily life, but provide theoretical foundation for the early prevention, diagnosis and treatment of related clinical diseases as well as guiding people healthy meals.

To provide evidence that elimination diet based on food‐specific IgG test results is an effective, reliable and valid aid to the management of chronic medical conditions.

A postal survey, commissioned by Allergy UK, was carried out with 5,286 subjects reporting a wide range of chronic medical conditions, who had taken a food‐specific IgG enzyme‐linked immunosorbant assay blood test. Questionnaires, issued three months after the results, were analysed to investigate the effect of eliminating the foods identified by the test. To check for response bias, a separate group of patients who had not responded were interviewed by telephone. The analysis and reporting of the data was carried out at the University of York.Findings – Of patients who rigorously followed the diet 75.8 per cent had a noticeable improvement in their condition. Of patients who benefited from following the recommendations 68.2 per cent felt the benefit within three weeks. Those who reported more than one condition were more likely to report noticeable improvement. 81.5 per cent of those that dieted rigorously and reported three or more co‐morbidities showed noticeable improvement in their condition. For those who dieted rigorously and reported high benefit, 92.3 per cent noticed a return of symptoms on reintroduction of the offending foods.

These data provide evidence for the use of elimination diet based on food‐specific IgG blood test results as an aid to management of the symptoms of a range of chronic medical conditions.

Describes a study to measure the quality of service provided by food‐poisoning surveillance agencies in England and Wales in terms of the requirements of a representative consumer ‐ the egg producing industry ‐ adopting “egg associated” outbreak investigation reports as the reference output. Defines and makes use of four primary performance indicators: accessibility of information; completeness of evidence supplied in food‐poisoning outbreak investigation reports as to the sources of infection in “egg‐associated” outbreaks; timeliness of information published; and utility of information and advice aimed at preventing or controlling food poisoning. Finds that quality expectations in each parameter measured are not met. Examines reasons why surveillance agencies have not delivered the quality demanded. Makes use of detailed case studies to illustrate inadequacies of current practice. Attributes failure to deliver “accessibility” to a lack of recognition on the status or nature of “consumers”, combined with a self‐maintenance motivation of the part of the surveillance agencies. Finds that failures to deliver “completeness” and “utility” may result from the same defects which give rise to the lack of “accessibility” in that, failing to recognize the consumers of a public service for what they are, the agencies feel no need to provide them with the data they require. The research indicates that self‐maintenance by scientific epidemiologists may introduce biases which when combined with a politically inspired need to transfer responsibility for food‐poisoning outbreaks, skew the conduct of investigations and their conclusions. Contends that this is compounded by serious and multiple inadequacies in the conduct of investigations, arising at least in part from the lack of training and relative inexperience of investigators, the whole conditioned by interdisciplinary rivalry between the professional groups staffing the different agencies. Finds that in addition failures to exploit or develop epidemiological technologies has affected the ability of investigators to resolve the uncertainties identified. Makes recommendations directed at improving the performance of the surveillance agencies which, if adopted will substantially enhance food poisoning control efforts.