Food Allergy Support Organisations

Reliable, established organisations for food allergy and sensitive skin in the UK and US, what each offers, how UK allergen labelling law backs you up, and how to tell trustworthy help from the noise online.

Why where you get information matters

Food, allergy and skin are areas where misinformation spreads fast, so it is worth knowing the established, evidence-based organisations before you need them. These bodies offer reliable information, helplines and community, and are a far safer starting point than social media or unregulated “intolerance” services. They will not diagnose you, but they will help you understand a diagnosis, prepare for appointments, and live day to day with a condition, which is exactly where good information makes the biggest difference.

In the UK

• Allergy UK is a national charity offering information and a helpline across food allergy and intolerance, including practical guides on labels, eating out and children.
• Anaphylaxis UK (formerly the Anaphylaxis Campaign) focuses on severe allergy, with resources for living with the risk of anaphylaxis and using emergency medication.
• Coeliac UK covers coeliac disease and gluten, useful if that is part of your picture, with a well-known food and venue guide.
• British Association of Dermatologists publishes patient information leaflets on skin conditions, including contact dermatitis and urticaria.
• British Skin Foundation offers skin-condition information and funds research.

UK labelling law is on your side

Knowing your rights makes shopping and eating out far less stressful. Under UK food law, 14 major allergens must be declared whenever they are used as ingredients, and on packaged foods they must be emphasised within the ingredients list, usually in bold, so they stand out. The 14 are celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, tree nuts, peanuts, sesame, soya, and sulphur dioxide and sulphites.

Since Natasha’s Law came into force in 2021, food that is prepacked for direct sale (PPDS), such as a sandwich made and wrapped on the premises before you order it, must also carry a full ingredients list with those allergens emphasised. For food sold loose or made to order, businesses must be able to tell you about allergens on request. If a label is unclear, you are entitled to ask, and a good business will have the information ready.

In the US

If you are reading American material or travelling, useful bodies include:

• FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education), the largest US food-allergy organisation, with patient resources and research.
• AAAAI (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology), a professional body with reliable public information and a “find an allergist” tool.
• Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), offering education and support for allergy and related conditions.

US labelling differs from the UK. American law highlights 9 major allergens (milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and, since 2023, sesame) and typically flags them in a plain “Contains” statement after the ingredients, for example “Contains: milk, wheat, soy”. If you shop across both systems, remember the lists and the format are not identical, so read carefully rather than assuming.

How to judge a source

Favour national charities, professional medical bodies and your own clinicians. Be cautious of anyone selling a test or a cure, of “IgG food intolerance” testing services that are not evidence-based, and of dramatic claims. Reliable sources explain uncertainty rather than promising certainty, cite where their information comes from, and update it. A trustworthy organisation wants you better informed and safer, not signed up to a subscription.

Tips

• Save one or two helpline numbers before you need them, rather than searching during a reaction.
• Use charity guides to prepare specific questions for your GP, allergist or dietitian.
• When travelling, read up on the destination country’s labelling rules in advance, since they may differ from the UK’s.

Check products against your list

Trusted organisations help you understand your condition. Day to day, a personal list helps you act on it. A free database like Open Food Facts and Fig give broad ingredient information, while a personal-list app like ClearaScan lets you save your triggers and scan any product, food, medication or cosmetic, against your ingredient guard list, flagging only yours. Its Reaction Journal lets you tie a flare back to a product, a shared Care Circle lets family scan for you, and a Trusted Products list keeps what you have cleared. It is currently in early access. (Disclosure: our editor co-founded ClearaScan, and we are not paid to mention the others.)

Written and reviewed by the Sensitive Skin Lab editorial team.