Though most of us assume that restaurants and other catering services can accommodate our food needs or restrictions, a new British study suggests restaurants workers are generally not trained to deal with food allergies, Time reported.

Results from the study indicate that about 90 percent of professional food-service workers, from restaurant owners to caterers to wait staff, are trained in general food services, but only one third have undergone any specific food-allergy training.

“A disproportionate number of food-provoked fatal anaphylactic reactions in the United Kingdom between 1999 and 2006 occurred after ingesting catered food,” the researchers from the public health division of Brighton and Sussex Medical School said.  “Food handlers’ poor knowledge may contribute to this elevated risk.  Currently, little training on food allergy is included in the generic food-hygiene training that is compulsory for all food handlers.”

Of those who had received some eduction about allergies, only three of the respondents had taken a specific food allergy course.  The rest had learned about allergies as a general food-hygiene or first aid course, or as a part of employee training.

Not surprisingly, many food handlers did not have a good understanding of how allergies work.  One out of three kitchens did not separate allergy-causing foods from other foods.  Only half of allergy-trained workers could identify three common allergens such as eggs, peanuts or shellfish.

Nearly 25 percent thought that an allergic reaction could be treated by drinking a glass of water to “dilute the allergen”, 23 percent thought that people with allergies would be fine if they only consumed a small amount of the allergen, and 21 percent thought people who had food allergies could simply pick the foods they were allergic to off their plates and suffer no reaction.

Conversely, 80 percent of respondents said they were confident they could provide a safe meal for customers with food allergy.

“Alarmingly there was no association between the respondents’ knowledge and their comfort level in providing a safe meal to food-allergic customers,” the researchers said.  ”Staff with high comfort and low knowledge are potentially dangerous, as they may convey an exaggerated sense of competence to their customers, giving them false reassurance.”

Three percent of American adults have at least one food allergy, compared to 6 percent of children under age 3.  Three million American children are affected.  The researchers said their study underscored how important it was for parents to be cautious when dining out with children who have food allergies.

The study was published in Clinical & Experimental Allergy.

Click here to read more from Time.com.

Forty percent of American children have seasonal allergies. When a parent has allergies, his or her child will probably have them too.

Most allergies tend to appear in childhood. So, if you have seasonal allergies as an adult, you probably started getting them as a kid.

As children, boys get more allergies than girls, but as they get older, women usually catch up to men.

Even though we say allergies are seasonal, they can occur year-round. In the spring, you can get allergies to grass and pollen, and in the fall you can get allergies to ragweed, molds and spores of different kinds.

Allergies occur when pollen, mold or dust kick your immune system into high gear, triggering a release of histamines, those chemicals that are mostly responsible for the sneezing, the runny nose, the itchy throat, and the watery eyes.

If teenagers weren’t properly exposed to their environment as children, their immune system won’t be able to recognize as harmless the pollen, dust and mold spores around them every day.

Loading the Virus Protection Program

Your immune system is essentially a system of specialized cells and organs that protects you from outside threats such as viruses, bacteria and other biological outsiders.

It is during the first decade of life that it learns which biological intrusions it needs to protect you against. What this means is, if you don’t get exposed to many of the harmless biological threats in your environment during your first decade of life, if you do not challenge the immune system early, you may pay the price with seasonal allergies and asthma throughout the rest of your life.

I’m talking about the dangers of over protecting our children. Some of this overprotection has been institutionalized in the form of widespread use of antibiotics, vaccinations against various diseases, cleaner food and water, and better living conditions.

But some parents may make this “problem” worse by keeping their kids at home in a “sterilized” environment – never taking them to the park, never letting them play in a sandbox, never letting them roll around in the grass, never letting them have a pet at home, and keeping them away from other kids who may be sick.

By underexposing our children to bacteria, certain viruses, and other minor threats in the environment, their immune systems will not develop the appropriate responses, and they may end up with seasonal allergies and other problems of an inexperienced immune system.

Studies show that if you have a pet when you’re a kid, you are less likely to get asthma. The same applies to running and rolling around in the grass at the park when you are three years old; those who do tend to have fewer seasonal allergies later on. A little exposure is a good thing.

Allergy Prevention

Prevention is the best treatment for seasonal allergies. Have you heard of spring cleaning? They don’t call it that for nothing.

If people in your household have allergies, it is important to do a thorough cleaning of the house, especially in the spring, by removing all the dust that has collected in your house over the winter.

It’s a good time to shampoo your rugs, vacuum all the nooks and crannies, and remove the mold from all kitchen, bathroom and garage surfaces.

If you have allergies in the spring and summer, take a few precautionary steps to avoid bringing allergens back into the house.

When you come in from the outdoors, don’t bring the clothes you’ve worn outdoors into the bedroom; change in another part of the house and take a shower, if you can.

Avoid being outdoors from the late morning to early afternoon, as those are the peak hours for pollen production. Keep your windows closed if you’re really allergic.