Intolerance to food additives - does it exist?

‘Food intolerance’ is often confused with a range of adverse symptoms which may be coincidental to ingestion of food. ‘Food intolerance’ is defined as a reaction in which symptoms must be objectively reproducible and not known to involve an immunological mechanism. A more precise term is non‐allergic food hypersensitivity, which contrasts with food allergies which are due to an immunological mechanism. Some children will experience food reactions to food additives. Reported symptoms range from urticaria/angioedema to hyperactive behaviours. While parents/carers report that over one fifth of children experience of food reaction, only 1 in 20 of these are confirmed to have a non‐allergic food hypersensitivity on testing.