For food allergy sufferers in Europe today, several barriers stand in the way of the doctors, regulators and industries who are working to improve the treatment and quality of life.

The most significant of these barriers are the gaps in our knowledge such as: how many people really suffer from food allergies; which are the most important foods involved; and why don’t the various diagnostic tests agree?

The EuroPrevall project brings together allergy experts from across Europe and the rest of the world who are working to fill these gaps in our knowledge. EuroPrevall is an EU-funded project (Contract number n° 514000) about food allergy coordinated by the Institute of Food Research in the UK. EuroPrevall aims to:

a) Find out the true number of infants, children and adults with food allergies across Europe,
b) Gain more knowledge about why some people become food allergic,
c) Investigate how the quality of life of allergic individuals can be improved,
d) Develop better diagnostic tests,
e) Find out how food allergy symptoms may differ depending on how a food is processed and what it is eaten together with.

EuroPrevall will also develop the tools necessary to manage food allergies more effectively. The 63 partners from 25 different countries around the world include some of the leading allergy research organisations in Europe as well as clinical, patient, and industrial organisations.

For more information on the project, visit the EuroPrevall website.

Patients associations, clinical doctors with expertise in food allergy, dieticians and food scientists collaborated to create the material 'Food Allergy: Basic facts and how to live with it', which is available on the GA²LEN website.