Specific Food Allergies in Singapore

244 INTRODUCTION Singapore has rapidly evolved into a modernised city state and currently faces the health burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), resembling that of developed Western nations.(1) In children, allergic diseases, including food allergy, are among the most common NCDs.(2) Food allergy rates are reported to be more than 10% in challenge-proven studies among Australian infants,(3) while in the United Kingdom (UK)(4) and the United States of America (USA),(5) the prevalence rates have doubled in the last decade. The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) data in 2007 demonstrated that the prevalence rates in Singaporean children decreased significantly from 15.7% to 10.2% for asthma, and remained largely stable for allergic rhinoconjunctivitis over a seven-year period.(6) These decreasing or stable trends have also been demonstrated in other Asian countries, such as South Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia, despite urbanisation.(7) Just as these allergic diseases in Singapore have not met the expected rise experienced by other highly industrialised countries, it is also uncertain whether the food allergy epidemic will hit our nation. This unclear prediction, together with ever-changing cultural practices and eating habits due to immigration and overseas influence, has opened a new chapter of food allergy in Singapore. A PubMed search of the terms “food allergy” and “Singapore” generated a total of 45 results from January 1999 to January 2014. All the articles generated are in English. Of these, 12 articles are not food-allergy focused, and two are focused on food testing methodology that is not unique to Singapore. Of the remaining 31 articles found, 16 are studies conducted on children, and 9 are review articles on food allergy in Asia or Singapore.