Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T16:07:20.905Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Testing for Food Intolerance: New Markets in the Age of Biocapital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

Anne Kerr ,
Brian Woods ,
Sarah Nettleton  and
Roger Burrows
Anne Kerr
Affiliation:
School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT E-mail: E.A.Kerr@leeds.ac.uk
Brian Woods
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, Business, and Social Sciences, University of Glasgow, University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8QQ E-mail: Brian.Woods79@lawcol.co.uk
Sarah Nettleton
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD E-mail: sjn2@york.ac.uk
Roger Burrows
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD E-mail: rjb7@york.ac.uk
Get access

Abstract

Testing for food allergy/intolerance is a rapidly expanding market. We present an exploration of the efforts of one of the market leading companies in this sector to promote and justify their product in the face of considerable opposition from conventional medicine, as well as a range of alliances with patient groups, so-called ‘lifestyle gurus’ and their customers. In extracting the latent value of an immunoglobin called IgG, testing companies engage with and extend entrepreneurial patienthood and new forms of pastoral expertise in their efforts to identify and manage a group of low-level chronic conditions that resonate with contemporary social unease about the hazards of modernity. Rather than foregrounding novelty and hope, we found that a great deal of emphasis was placed upon establishing conventionality with business practice and scientific method, and relief from the past. We also found that the local circuits and networks of engagement, in which the company operated to secure their reputation and extend their market, were vitally important. We end by reflecting upon the implications of our analysis for contemporary scholarship on biocapitalism.

Keywords

Allergy TestingBiocapitalismFood AllergyFood Intolerance
Type
Articles
Information
BioSocieties , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 3 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © London School of Economics and Political Science 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allergy UK (2008). Food allergy and intolerance awareness week, 21–26 January, press release, URL (accessed April 2008): http://www.allergyuk.org/news_food_allergy_intolerance08.aspxGoogle Scholar
Asero, R., Ballmer-Weber, B.K., Beyer, K., Conti, A., Dubakiene, R., Fernandez-Rivas, M.et al. (2007). IgE-mediated food allergy diagnosis: Current status and new perspectives. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 51, 135–147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bailey, E. (1995). Bad reactions. Sunday Times, 29 October.Google Scholar
Barnes, R.M.R. (1995). IgG and IgA antibodies to dietary antigens in food allergy and intolerance. Clinical and Experimental Allergy, 25(Suppl. 1), 7–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrett, S. (2002). Stay away from cytotoxic testing, URL (accessed April 2008): http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/cyto.htmlGoogle Scholar
Barrett, S. (2008). Allergies: Dubious diagnosis and treatment, URL (accessed April 2008): http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/allergytests.htmlGoogle Scholar
BBC Radio 4 (2007). Allergic reactions, 22 May, URL (accessed June 2007): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/allergicreactions.shtmlGoogle Scholar
Black, A. (1956). A new diagnostic method in allergic disease. Pediatrics, 17, 716–724.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braly, J. (2001). Food allergy relief. Los Angeles, CA: Keats Publishing.Google Scholar
Brostoff, J., & Gamlin, L. (1998). The complete guide to food allergy and intolerance, 3rd edn. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Bryan, W.T. & Bryan, M.P. (1971). Cytotoxic reactions in the diagnosis of food allergy. Otolaryngol Clinics of North America, 4, 523–534.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
BSACI (2006). British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Annual Meeting, 10–12 July, Loughborough.Google Scholar
Buttriss, J., & Schenker, S. (2002). Introduction and Definitions. Adverse Reactions to Food: The Report of a British Nutrition Foundation Task Force. Oxford: Blackwell Science.Google Scholar
Carling, A. (2005). The truth about food allergy and food intolerance testing: Food fact sheet. British Dietetic Association, the BDA Food Allergy and Intolerance Specialist Group, September.Google Scholar
Chrysanthou, M. (2002). Transparency and selfhood: Utopia and the informed body. Social Science & Medicine, 54, 469–479.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clover, A. (2006). Are the dangers of childhood food allergy exaggerated? Yes. British Medical Journal, 333(September), 494–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crespo, J.F., James, J.M., & Rodriguez, J. (2004). Diagnosis and therapy of food allergy. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 48, 347–355.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dixon, H.S. (1997a). Food allergy signs and symptoms. In Trevino, R. & Dixon, H. (Eds), Food allergy, 36–60. New York: Thieme.Google ScholarPubMed
Dixon, H.S. (1997b). The diagnosis of food allergy. In Trevino, R., & Dixon, H., (Eds), Food allergy, 61–80. New York: Thieme.Google ScholarPubMed
Dixon, H.S. (2000). Treatment of delayed food allergy based on specific immunoglobulin G RAST testing. Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, 123, 48–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dockhorn, R. (1987). Clinical studies of food allergy in infants and children. Annals of Allergy, 59(5 Pt 2), 137–140.Google ScholarPubMed
FDA (Food and Drug Administration) (1985). Sec. 370.100 cytotoxic testing for allergic diseases (Compliance policy guide 7124.27), issued 19 March 1985, revised March 1995, URL (accessed March 2009): http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/cpg/cpgdev/cpg370-100.htmlGoogle Scholar
FSA (Food Standards Agency) (2007) Food allergy and food intolerance, URL (accessed October 2008): http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/webpage/allergy/Google Scholar
Graham, J. (2008). Facilitating regulation: The dance of statistical significance and clinical meaningfulness in standardizing technologies for dementia. BioSocieties, 3, 241–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holford, P., & Braly, J. (2005). Hidden food allergies: Is what you eat making you ill? London: Piatkus.Google Scholar
Holgate, S., & Ewan, P. (Eds) (2003). Allergy: The unmet need. Report of the Royal College of Physicians Working Party on the Provision of Allergy Services in the UK. London: Royal College of Physicians.Google Scholar
Hope, J. (2004). How allergy suffers are let down by the NHS. Daily Mail, 2 November, 31.Google Scholar
House of Lords (2007). Allergy. Science and Technology Committee, 6th Report of Session 2006–2007, vol. 1. London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Jackson, M. (2006). Allergy: The history of a modern malady. London: Reaktion Books.Google Scholar
Jackson, W.F. (2003). Food allergy. Washington, DC: ILSI Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Janeway, C., Travers, P., Walport, M., & Shlomchik, M. (2001). Immunobiology: The immune system in health and disease, 5th edn. New York: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
Johansson, S.G.O. (2003). Allergy: The discovery of immunoglobulin E to today. Clinical and Experimental Allergy Reviews, 3, 3–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johansson, S.G.O., Hourihane, J.O.B., Bousquet, J., Bruijnzeel-Koomen, C., Dreborg, S., Haahtela, T.et al. (2001). A revised nomenclature for allergy: An EAACI position statement from the EAACI nomenclature task force. Allergy, 56, 813–824.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johansson, S.G.O., Bieber, T., Dahl, R., Friedmann, P.S., Lanier, B.Q., Lockey, R.F.et al. (2004). Revised nomenclature for allergy for global use: Report of the Nomenclature Review Committee of the World Allergy Organization, October 2003. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 113, 832–836.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kerr, A. (2004). Genetics and society: A sociology of disease. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimber, I., & Dearman, R.J. (2002). Factors affecting the development of food allergy. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 61, 435–439.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to Actor-Network Theory. Oxford: Oxford UP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lessof, M. (1983). Food intolerance and allergy—A review. Quarterly Journal of Medicine, New Series 52(206), 111–119.Google ScholarPubMed
Lessof, M. (1985). Food intolerance. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 44, 121–125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lessof, M. (2002). Common food allergies. In Buttriss, J. (Ed.), Adverse reactions to food: The report of the British Nutrition Foundation task force. Oxford: Blackwell Science.Google Scholar
Mansfield, S. (2006). So we're allergic to our diet? It's a complaint that's hard to swallow. The Scotsman, 23 January, 10.Google Scholar
Marber, I. (2005). It must have been something I ate. Daily Telegraph, 1 August, 20.Google Scholar
Mills, C. (2007). Minutes of evidence taken before the House of Lords, the Select Committee on Science and Technology (Sub-committee 1) Allergy, un-revised, proof copy, Ev. 11, 15 March.Google Scholar
Mitman, G. (2007). Breathing space. New Haven, CT: Yale UP.Google Scholar
Nettleton, S., Woods, B., Burrows, R., & Kerr, A. (forthcoming 2009). Experiencing food allergy and food intolerance: An analysis of lay accounts. Sociology.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novas, C., & Rose, N. (2000). Genetic risk and the birth of the somatic individual. Economy and Society, 29, 485–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortolani, C., Ispano, M., Scibilia, J., & Pastorello, E.A. (2001). Introducing chemists to food allergy. Allergy, 56(Suppl. 67), 5–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Osterballe, M., & Bindslev-Jensen, C. (2003). Threshold levels in food challenge and specific IgE in patients with egg allergy: Is there a relationship? Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 112, 196–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parish, W.E. (1970). Short-term anaphylactic IgG antibodies in human sera. Lancet, 2(7673), 591–592.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prentice, T. (1985). Food allergy diets harmful. The Times, 9 July.Google Scholar
Rajan, K.S. (2006). Biocapital: The constitution of postgenomic life. Durham, NC: Duke UP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Revill, J. (2007). NHS swamped by an epidemic of allergies. The Observer, 10 June.Google Scholar
Roberts, C., & Franklin, S. (2006). Born and made: An ethnography of preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rose, N. (2006). The politics of life itself: Biomedicine, power and subjectivity in the twenty-first century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP.Google Scholar
Sampson, H.A. (2001). ‘Utility of food-specific IgE concentrations in predicting symptomatic food allergy. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 107, 891–896.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sampson, H.A. (2004). Update on food allergy. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 113, 805–819.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sampson, H.A., & Burks, W.A. (1996). Mechanisms of food allergy. Annual Review of Nutrition, 16, 161–177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sampson, H.A., & Ho, D.G. (1997). Relationship between food-specific IgE concentrations and the risk of positive food challenges in children and adolescents. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 100, 444–451.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scadding, G. (2007). Minutes of evidence taken before the House of Lords: The Select Committee on Science and Technology (Sub-committee 1) Allergy, un-revised, proof copy, Ev. 11, 15 March.Google Scholar
Senna, G., Bonadonna, P., Schiappoli, M., Leo, G., Lombardi, C., & Passalacqua, G. (2005). Pattern of use and diagnostic value of complementary/alternative tests for adverse reactions to food. Allergy, 60, 1216–1217.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sense about Science (2008). Making sense of testing. London: Sense about Science in collaboration with the Royal College of Pathologists, the Association for Clinical Biochemistry and the Foundation for Genomics & Population Health.Google Scholar
Shaffer, R., Kuczynski, K., & Skinner, D. (2008). Producing genetic knowledge and citizenship through the Internet: Mothers, pediatric genetics, and cybermedicine. Sociology of Health & Illness, 30, 145–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shakib, F., McLaughan, P., & Stanworth, D.R. (1977). Elevated serum IgE and IgG4 in patients with atopic dermatitis. British Journal of Dermatology, 97, 59–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sicherer, S.H. (2002). Review: Food allergy. Lancet, 360(31 August), 701–710.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sporik, R., Hill, D.J., & Hosking, C.S. (2000). Specificity of allergen skin testing in predicting positive open food challenges to milk, egg and peanut in children. Clinical and Experimental Allergy, 30(11), 1540–1546.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strobel, S. (2002). Clinically validated diagnostic tests and non-validated procedures of unproven value. In Buttriss, J. (Ed.), Adverse reactions to food: The report of the British Nutrition Foundation task force. Oxford: Blackwell Science.Google Scholar
Thacker, E. (2005). The global genome: Biotechnology, politics, and culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.C. (1984). The flaw in cytotoxic testing: There’s no proof it works—testing blood for allergies. FDA Consumer, October, URL (accessed March 2009): http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1370/is_v18/ai_3456415Google Scholar
Walby, C., & Mitchell, T. (2006). Tissue economies: Blood, organs and cell lines in late capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke UP.Google Scholar
Wahlberg, A. (2008). Pathways to plausibility: When herbs become pills. BioSocieties, 3, 37–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willey, Jo, & Sadler, R. (2006). Misery ends for allergy suffers. The Express, 9 September, 1.Google Scholar
Woods, R.K., Stoney, R.M., Raven, J., Walters, E.H., Abramson, M., & Thien, F.C. (2002). Reported adverse food reactions overestimate true food allergy in the community. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 56, 31–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woolgar, S. (2002). Five rules of virtuality. In Woolgar, S. (Ed.), Virtual society? Technology, cyberbole, reality, 1–22. Oxford: Oxford UP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar