Discover FoodDetective®

In general, we recommend that you follow your normal diet, so that the test will reflect what you usually eat. However, if you have specifically avoided a food for more than three months (e.g. cow’s milk), which used to be part of your normal diet and you would like it tested, we would recommend that it is reintroduced. The recommendations are to reintroduce the food for 1 week, eating a normal portion of that food at least once daily before taking your blood sample. If symptoms occur on reintroducing the food, we recommend that you discontinue that food and conclude you are still sensitive to it.

The reaction tray is imprinted with food protein extracts. A finger prick blood sample (50µl) is diluted and added to the tray. In subsequent steps the use of detector and developer solutions enables the identification of the presence of food antibodies through the appearance of one or more blue spots on the tray. The darker the spot, the higher the concentration of IgG antibodies detected to that specific food. Reference to the food layout plan allows the foods causing antibody production to be identified.

A finger prick blood sample is required. Results are displayed within 40 minutes

FoodDetective is a professional and near-patient test which uses ELISA technology to detect the presence of IgG antibodies to 59 common foods. There is no need to send your sample off to a lab as the test can be carried out in clinic giving results within 40 minutes. The test will show results as blue spots if positive and includes a control to identify whether the test has been performed correctly. FoodPrint is the name of our comprehensive laboratory service and requires samples to be sent off to the lab, where they are analysed, and results returned within 5 working days. The technology is more advanced than that employed by FoodDetective as it uses microarray technology which enables a more sensitive test to be performed. Due to this a greater number of foods can be tested and detected, and we offer a choice of panels including FoodPrint 40, 120, 200, vegetarian, vegan, as well as an Indicator test. The Indicator test provides a positive or negative response and will require an upgrade to a larger test if the result comes back positive, to identify which foods are causing the problem. Visit each individual product page to see which foods are included in each test and click here for an example report.

No, the FoodPrint test will not only reflect the foods you are currently eating in your diet but also foods that you may have eaten in the past and are not currently eating. The more frequently and regularly you eat a food the more likely you will raise IgG antibodies. Ideally, we should not be responding to any foods that we eat, but over time our gastrointestinal walls may become damaged allowing poorly digested food proteins access to the bloodstream stimulating an immune response. While an elimination diet will always be the gold standard, the benefit of taking a food sensitivity test is that it will be able to quickly show which of the foods that are eaten on a regular basis are a potential problem. In addition, the tests can highlight more unusual foods which a person may not have considered to be the cause.