A new food allergy test known as uKnow provides more information than ever before about food sensitivities, predicting the potential severity of allergic reaction. The test has now been FDA approved, paving the way for it to become more widely available.
Uknow provides more specific and accurate results than previous allergy tests. It not only detects the presence of an allergy, but also predicts the severity. Allergy sufferers and their families will then know whether they are at risk of a minor reaction or a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction.
Before this highly-sensitive allergy test, a skin prick or blood test could diagnose the allergy, but not provide information about its severity, leaving allergy sufferers without clear information about what might happen to them if they accidentally ingested an allergen.
Details of the Test
The uKnow allergy test involves a blood draw, with lab results returned within a few weeks. Dr. Inderpal Randhawa, director of the Food Allergy Center at Miller Children’s Hospital in California, says that the test is estimated to be 65-70% accurate. He commented “Now we can tell them, with a much larger degree of certainty, you’re in the high-risk category, versus a low-risk category or no-risk category. Instead of trying to assume the worst, let’s look at our numbers.”