Gluten has become one of the main food ingredients causing allergic reactions in Hongkongers, a study has found.
Gluten, a protein commonly found in bread and cereal, ranked fifth among foods causing allergic reactions in 2006, but moved up to third this year, a survey by diagnostic test company HK Bio Tek found.
Nineteen per cent of respondents reported having allergic reactions after eating foods containing gluten, compared to 14 per cent in 2006.
Sophie Leung, a paediatrician who has worked with patients with allergies, said Hongkongers had taken up a western diet and were eating more bread.
However, Adrian Wu Young Yuen, a specialist in immunology and allergy, said caseloads of patients with food allergies had remained stable in the past few years, as had their eating habits.
HK Bio Tek based its study on 1,053 people aged between eight months and 87 who had taken one of its tests from January last year to June this year. It conducted a similar study in July 2006 on 409 other people.
