Managing food allergies generally involves completely avoiding your allergens in all forms. However, recent research about egg allergies may paint a more complicated picture.
A study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that the majority of children with diagnosed egg allergies were able to tolerate small quantities of eggs that had been “extensively heated.” (The study used eggs cooked into muffins and waffles as trial foods.) The children who ate the eggs in baked goods showed decreased reactions to egg on follow-up skin-prick allergy tests three months into the study.
The study found no adverse effects for the children who ate the extensively heated eggs during the study period in terms of growth rate, intestinal permeability, or other allergic diseases. The children were able to continue eating extensively heated egg after the study was over, although most of them still could not tolerate scrambled eggs, Caesar salad dressing, or other foods in which eggs are not cooked so extensively.
This does not mean you should run out and get a muffin if you have an egg allergy. Talk to your allergist about doing a supervised trial of baked eggs in the doctor’s office. If you have had a severe allergic reaction to eggs in the last six months, your doctor will probably discourage you from trying baked eggs at this point in time.
Some people cannot tolerate even a tiny portion of cooked eggs. Talk to your doctor about the severity of your egg allergy. Do not attempt to try baked eggs at home.
Sources:
Lemon-Mulé, H., et al. Immunologic changes in children with egg allergy ingesting extensively heated egg. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Volume 122, Issue 5, November 2008
Savage , J. et al. The natural history of egg allergy Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Volume 120, Issue 6, December 2007, Pages 1413-1417
