Overlooked People in the Food Allergy Community: People of Color

People of color (Blacks, Latin Americans, Asians, Middle Eastern, Indigenous peoples, etc) who have food allergies often have a different experience than Caucasians with food allergies. From different rates of food allergies to different standards of accessible healthcare, race and ethnicity have proven to be crucial pieces of the food allergy puzzle. Yet, race is often overlooked in regards to food allergies.

“Black and other minority patients often lack voice and visibility in the health care system”
Emily Brown, founder of the Food Equality Initiative

Research about the correlation between food allergies and race is all over the place with some studies indicating that certain ethnicities have higher rates of food allergies to certain foods, while other studies disprove the same data. If you look at food allergy rates and likelihoods for specific allergens based on race, the data gets even messier. As a result of confusing and contradictory information, many food allergy advocacy groups simply leave race out of the picture. While older studies concur that white children had the highest rates of foo allergies, most recent studies agree that children of a minority race have higher rates of food allergies compared to white children. Here are the facts:

The rates of food allergies in Black children have increased faster in the past decade than any other race
Black children are 2 to 3 times more likely to die from anaphylaxis and 6 times more likely to die from asthma than a white child
Hispanic children are more likely to have food allergies than white children
Black children are less likely to be accurately diagnosed for food allergies
African American and Hispanic children have higher rates of corn, fish, and shellfish allergies than white children
Asian American children have 24% higher odds of food allergies than white children
Hawaiian and Pacific Islander children have 26% higher odds of food allergies than white children
African American children have 7% higher odds of food allergies

Graph displaying the percentage of the US population with food allergies categorized by allergen and race (based on data from 2020)

People of color often face socioeconomic barriers in healthcare in terms of affording allergists and medication, receiving quality care, and having access to educational resources. In other words, people of color face medical racism, which is the widespread bias against people of color in the healthcare field. Medical racism can take the form of diminished health insurance coverage for POC’s, bias held by hospital staff, unequal treatment of POC’s, lack of POC representation in medical textbooks for aspiring doctors, etc. As a result, Blacks, Hispanics, and other people of color are more likely to be uninsured, more likely to be dismissed by doctors, and more likely to go untreated for health conditions such as food allergies.

People of color are more likely to have food allergies yet less likely to receive quality care for these allergies. Meanwhile, if you google “child with food allergies” and click on the images tab, nearly every single picture will be of an elementary school aged Caucasian child. Despite recent research indicating that food allergies span a diverse range of racial/ethnic backgrounds, white children remain the face of the food allergy community. Underrepresentation of POC’s in the food allergy community not only diminishes the confidence and wellbeing of children of color with food allergies, but also contributes to the lack of equality and accessibility in the healthcare field regarding the treatment of food allergies. Food Allergy Allies aims to shine a light on these discrepancies and calls for more advocacy, research, and assistance to be directed to these often overlooked members of the food allergy community.