Allergy to meat proteins in adults.

402 cases of food allergy in the Allergy Unit Zurich within 10 years an allergy to meat could be diagnosed in 33 patients, corresponding to a frequency of 8.2%, therefrom in 4.5% to beef and pork, in 2.5% to chicken, in 0.7% to sausages and in 0.5% to lamb. When looking to the literature one can note, that although the way of nutrition has changed since the end of the Second World War as the meat consumption nearly redoubled, no corresponding increase in meat allergy could be observed. This shows that allergies to beef-, veal-, and pork-proteins are not so frequent as wrongly supposed, the allergenic potency of these meat proteins often gets lost by denaturation (frying). In some particular cases we can observe allergies against innards which can also occur in adults. Recently, a ''pore-chat'' syndrome as cross allergy between pork and cat epithelia has been described in France. Fowl allergies are mostly connected with an allergy to egg (so-called bird-egg and egg-bird syndrome). Allergies after intake of sausages can be based on preservatives, milk proteins, spices or nuts/seeds/grains. Also enzymes (meat's tenderizer) or wastes antibiotics as cause of severe anaphylaxis must be taken into consideration. Allergies to meat proteins have to be cleared up with scientifically recognized methods (different skin tests and blood tests - RAST - for IgE determination), whereby the intolerance reactions suspected by the patients or diagnosed by means of alternative methods have to be confirmed with the help of double-blind placebo-controlled oral provocation tests.