In a recent posting, "The fear about peanut allergies is nuts," Rahul K. Parikh, M.D, voiced his opinion that food allergy statistics are not valid, in particular those provided by FAAN. We would like to correct some of Dr. Parikh's errors, misconceptions and mis-statements.

Dr. Parikh would have his readers believe that the data is not based on science, but hearsay. FAAN is a science-based organization. The statistics reported by FAAN are from peer-reviewed studies published in leading medical journals. The studies used survey instruments set up to weed out non-allergy reports. The limitations to the studies have been noted in the published articles.

Most recently, government agencies such as the CDC and FDA have published their own independent studies and the data estimating the incidence of emergency room visits was published by a group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

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