FOOD ADDITIVE INTOLERANCE - AN EMERGING CAUSE OF DISEASE IN CHILDREN

An increasing number of clinical observations suggest that food additives represent an important pathogenetic factor undelying diseases which are common in children, such as urticaria, angioedema, asthma and maybe the hyperkinetic syndrome. Intolerance reactions to food additives have been classified as false-food-allergy, since they elicit clinical pictures which are similar to classical IgE-mediated allergies. The real incidence of intolerance reactions to food additives is not yet completely known, in spite of the large amount of data reported in the literature. Moreover the mechanisms through which these molecules trigger such reactions are also obscure. Considering the lesive effects of these substances on physical and maybe psychical health, a greater attention to the development of definitely safe food additives and alternative means of food preservation would be desiderable, as well as the application of restrictive rules for the evaluation of their direct and indirect lesive effects on humans and children in particular.