1 in 5 report some form of food intolerance

More than one in 10 US adults are estimated to be allergic to at least one food, a study suggests.

Among more than 40,000 people surveyed, almost 11% report the kinds of symptoms consistent with a food allergy.

Another 8.2% say they believe they have food allergies, but their symptoms suggest other causes, according to the report in JAMA Network Open.

The main message from the survey is that one in five adults have some kind of food-related conditions that are causing them to avoid certain foods, says study author Dr Ruchi Gupta, of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

"And one in 10 has what looks convincingly like a food allergy — and of those, only half are getting a proper diagnosis by a physician."

Dr Gupta and her colleagues used two web-based panels of more than 40,400 people who had agreed to fill out surveys for a small remuneration.