In February 2023, 13-year-old Hannah Jacobs died from a severe allergic reaction after drinking a hot chocolate from Costa Coffee. Hannah suffered from allergies to dairy, fish and eggs, and her mother had asked for soy milk, but the hot chocolate contained cows’ milk. In July 2016, 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died on a flight after eating a Pret a Manger baguette she had bought at Heathrow. She had a severe allergic reaction to sesame, which had been baked into the bread but wasn’t listed on the ingredients label.

These types of fatal events linked to food allergies seem to be occurring more frequently. They appear in headlines and have driven a movement to make planes, schools and other restricted environments “nut-free”. But are food allergies really on the rise, or is our coverage of them merely increasing?

A recent study in the Lancet Public Health journal provides answers. Led by Paul Turner of Imperial College London, it found that food allergies had doubled between 2008 and 2018. Most of these affect children. By reviewing data from GP surgeries in England, the researchers found that across........

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