Are blueberries an allergic food?

Blueberries are indeed a potentially allergenic food, but they are not a highly allergenic food as popularly believed. Most people will not experience allergic reactions after eating it.

When I was helping in a children's nutritional intervention studio, I met a mother who had just introduced complementary feeding for two months and came for consultation. She said that after feeding her child half a spoonful of blueberry puree, the area around her mouth turned red quickly, and she thought the blueberries she bought had pesticide residues. Later, we helped her do a simple food check. After she stopped eating blueberries for 3 days, the rash disappeared. After a small amount of attempts, the same symptoms appeared again, and it was confirmed that she was allergic to a specific protein in blueberries. However, this situation is actually very rare. We have been providing complementary food guidance for three years and have encountered less than 5 cases of blueberry allergy, which is much less than common allergenic fruits such as mango, kiwi and strawberry.

Many people think they are allergic to blueberries, but it is actually a misunderstanding caused by cross-allergy. For example, people who are allergic to birch pollen and mugwort pollen may experience itching in the mouth and tightness in the throat when eating raw blueberries. This is because some of the protein structures in blueberries are very similar to the allergenic proteins of these pollen, and the immune system will "recognize the wrong person" and trigger a mild allergic reaction. If you make blueberries into jam or steam them until soft before eating, this problem will not occur after the protein is denatured. A friend who likes outdoor camping complained to me before, saying that eating wild blueberries picked in the mountains made his throat itchy, but eating blueberries bought in greenhouses from supermarkets was fine. Later, I found out that the skin of wild blueberries was stained with a lot of pollen from surrounding wild wormwood. I ate them without washing them when picking them. It had nothing to do with the blueberries themselves.

In fact, there is no need to be afraid of blueberries because of the potential risk of allergy. In the current domestic food allergy statistics, the allergenicity rate of blueberries is not even ranked in the top 20, which is several orders of magnitude lower than the eggs, milk, and wheat we often eat. There is no need to avoid or delay adding complementary foods to your baby. Just try half a spoonful of the food for the first time and observe for 24 hours that there are no abnormalities such as rash, vomiting, or diarrhea. Then you can add it normally. Don’t panic if you accidentally get infected. Food allergies in most children are not lifelong. As the immune system develops and improves, many people gradually develop a tolerance as they grow older, and there will be no problem eating them again in the future.