'Perfect storm': Doctors warn of alarming rise in adult-onset food allergies

24 Nov 2025 By foxnews

More adults are suddenly developing allergic reactions later in life - and experts aren't sure why.

Nearly 50% of adults developed at least one food allergy in adulthood, according to a 2019 investigation published in JAMA.

Illana Golant, founder and CEO of the Food and Allergy Fund (FAF) in New York City, told Fox News Digital that she developed allergies in her 40s.

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"That is not fully understood at all or recognized … we don't know why they're starting at certain points," she said.

FAF hosted a forum last week in Washington, D.C., attended by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, FDA Chief Martin Makary and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya.

Health officials and researchers are investigating whether allergies may be caused by gut health microbes.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Makary shared how the function of microbiomes has evolved over time.

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The intestine hosts over a billion different types of bacteria, which normally live in balance, according to Makary.

"But when it's altered by the modern-day diet and by antibiotics and other exposures … that disequilibrium can cause inflammation [and] health problems, and it may be implicated in food allergies," he said.

Golant shared that there seems to be a "critical inflection point," as some foods trigger adults more than children.

"Seafood shellfish [and] tree nuts seem to be proliferating among adults," she noted.

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Shellfish was the top allergen in adults, according to a 2018 survey of over 40,000 people that was published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Golant said she luckily knew about allergies when she had her first anaphylactic reaction.

"If I didn't know about food allergies, I would have thought I was having a heart attack," she said. "Genetics can't change so quickly. In a generation, food allergies have skyrocketed."

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Approximately one in 10 adults are affected by food allergies, according to FAF.

"It's very much the perfect storm of a variety of environmental triggers," Golant added. "We still don't know which ones and … if there is one primary [trigger], but my guess is that more likely, it is a perfect storm."