Unproven procedures for diagnosis and treatment of food allergy.

The science of allergy and immunology has advanced to the point where effective procedures for diagnosis and treatment of food allergy can be proven to be effective. Currently available procedures of proven effectiveness are sufficiently satisfactory for diagnosis and treatment of food allergy so that ones of unproven effectiveness should not be employed in routine fashion, but rather should be considered experimental and reserved for use with informed consent in controlled trials which have been approved for safety and scientific merit by competent institutional review boards. Leucocytoxic testing, intracutaneous and subcutaneous provocation and neutralization, and sublingual provocation and neutralization are unproven procedures and should be reserved for experimental use only.