Sesame seed allergy rates and diagnosis in people
What it found
Sesame allergy affects about 0.1 to 0.2 percent of people where the food is available.
Removing sesame from children's diets based only on skin or blood tests may raise their chance of developing an allergy.
What they found
Studies in people
How common it is
The authors estimate sesame allergy affects 0.1 to 0.2 percent of people where the food is sold. That is roughly half the rate of lasting cow milk allergy.
Severe allergic reactions
Only one death has been reported. However, many patients arrive with anaphylaxis, which is a severe whole body reaction.
Diagnosis problems
Many reports diagnosed sesame allergy using sensitization tests alone. This was especially common among children with eczema.
Removing sesame from diets
The authors say taking sesame out of children's diets based only on those tests is not justified. Doing so might actually raise the risk of developing a real sesame allergy.
What the authors conclude
- They estimate sesame allergy affects 0.1 to 0.2 percent of people where the food is available.
- They warn that removing sesame from children's diets based only on sensitization tests is not justified.
- They suggest this practice might increase the chance of developing a true sesame allergy.
How it was done
Reports of sesame allergy have risen sharply around the world over the past twenty years. The authors wanted to look at how common it really is and how it gets diagnosed.
The authors gathered existing data on sesame allergy worldwide. They looked at how often it happens, how severe reactions can be, and how doctors diagnose it. They noted a lack of well designed studies that follow whole populations over time.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- Exact allergy rates are hard to pin down because there are no well designed studies following whole populations over time.
- It is unclear whether rising reports mean more people are truly allergic or just more aware of the problem.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Tel-Aviv University, Israel
The paper
- Title
- Sesame seed food allergy
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Dalal I, Goldberg M, Katz Y (2012). Sesame seed food allergy. Current allergy and asthma reports. doi:10.1007/s11882-012-0267-2PubMed 22610362DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error