How is egg allergy diagnosed?

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    Last Updated: May 16, 2025

    Egg allergy is diagnosed by a healthcare practitioner based on a clinical history of allergy symptoms after egg consumption and may be confirmed through skin prick or blood tests that measure egg-specific IgE. However, these tests can yield false positives, so a diagnosis requires both a positive test and reported symptoms, and an oral food challenge may also be conducted in a supervised setting.

    Egg allergy can be diagnosed by a healthcare practitioner based on a clinical history of allergy symptoms beginning within minutes of egg consumption.

    In some cases, the allergy may be confirmed by measuring egg-specific IgE using a skin prick test or blood test. However, these tests tend to have poor positive predictive value, meaning that sometimes the test will be positive for egg-specific IgE when a true egg allergy isn’t present. Therefore, a positive IgE test will only lead to a diagnosis if the person also reports allergy symptoms following egg consumption. Occasionally, an oral food challenge may be performed in a supervised setting where egg is administered and the person is monitored for an allergic reaction.[1]