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How Can I Be Tested For A Sesame Allergy?

You must make sure you see a doctor who specialises in allergy. Don’t be tempted to go for ‘high street’ testing, which has no scientific basis and can put your health at risk by misdiagnosing and giving inappropriate advice. Crucially these tests don’t offer patients a detailed consultation and follow up care with a trained specialist clinician.

An important part of investigating and diagnosing an allergy is recording detailed information about your symptoms, your diet and the circumstances of the reaction. This can give a good indication about your diagnosis, which can then be confirmed by definitive testing.

A diagnosis can be made using the skin prick test. A drop of sesame extract is placed on the skin of your forearm and a small reaction, such as a red, raised and itchy hive or white weal, will occur if you’re allergic. This test takes about 10-15 minutes.

A blood test called Specific IgE testing (previously called the Radio AllergoSorbent Test or RAST test) is another way of diagnosing a sesame allergy. A blood sample is taken and the amount of IgE antibody present against the sesame protein is measured.

Where there is some doubt over the diagnosis, your doctor might recommend a food challenge test. This is the most reliable testing method, but is labour intensive (so not always easily available) and involves a risk of having a reaction. Under close hospital supervision you are given small, but gradually increasing, amounts of sesame to eat. Medical observations are made at regular intervals, such as checking your blood pressure. Early signs of an allergic reaction can be spotted quickly and treated before they develop into anything serious. If there’s no reaction after the final and largest dose of sesame is eaten, allergy can be ruled out.