Oral Food Challenges: The Standard of Diagnosis

Oral food challenges are considered the gold-standard diagnosis of food allergy and are frequently performed in the clinical setting to determine whether a food allergic patient may reintroduce a food to the diet or continue strict avoidance; however, they are expensive, time-consuming, and potentially risky. Surrogate biomarkers can help guide management in the clinical setting but do not replace the need for oral food challenges. As providers rely on oral food challenges in their clinical management of patients, it is important to have training and standardized protocols to reduce risk to patients if allergic reactions were to occur.