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30 ALLERGICLIVING.COM GETTY IMAGES ASK THE FOOD ALLERGY EXPERTS Q&A | By Dr. Scott Sicherer and Dr. Hemant Sharma My family often eats vegan foods, which fit well with our 12-year-old’s dairy allergy. However, when we ate new plant- based burgers made of pea protein recently, our son got hives on his face and a puffy lip. (This got better with Zyrtec.) Besides dairy, our son has allergies to peanuts and lentils. Is it possible he’s also now allergic to peas? Should we be testing? Dr. Sicherer: From your description, I’ll assume your 12-year-old has been tolerating green peas up until the reac- tion to the pea protein burger. There are an increasing number of products that use concentrated bean (legume) proteins. Some common types: flours in bread and pasta made with lentil, lupine or chickpea; the use of concentrated soy (soy protein concentrate/isolate) in processed foods; and, as you identify, the use of concentrated pea proteins. The increas- ing number of products enriched with pea proteins, including processed meats but also yogurts, cookies, health supple- ments, and others, are typically using a type of pea known as yellow, dun or field pea. When evaluating an allergy like this, I think about the knowledge we have and the history of the patient. Based on studies, about 95 percent of people with peanut allergy toler- ate other legumes (even though most will have positive skin or blood tests to multiple beans). However, if a person with peanut allergy had a reaction to other legumes, like lentil in your son’s case, I may become suspicious of other beans that I call “potent” ones. These are: lupine, chickpea, lentil, yellow (dun) pea, green pea and soy. Typically, if there is a bean allergy, we don’t see it as often for other types (black, white, kidney, lima, green, etc.).