Hi Pitlove,
The “gold standard” for diagnosing an adverse food reaction is a properly conducted elimination trial. Other types of testing are fraught with inaccuracy.
Adverse food reactions can be either a hypersensitivity: the reaction is driven by the immune system either type I which is IgE a true food allergy or delayed hypersensitivity type III or IV or a food intolerance: immune system is not involved in the reaction a classic example is lactose intolerance.
The mechanism for adverse food reaction is not clearly known, some are IgE driven reactions but many reactions are not which is why testing for IgE isn’t accurate. Until the mechanism is understood I don’t see that an accurate test can be developed.
Intolerance is a reaction to the food that doesn’t involve the immune system and may be caused from several factors that currently are not being tested for in the dog.
