Image via PixabayNew research shows having a food allergy leads to extra costs of 1,600 euro a year.
For children, it's estimated that food allergies cost families an extra 1,400 euro a year.
The study, which is the first all-island estimate of food hypersensitivity costs, was carried out by researchers in TU Dublin and Queens University Belfast.
The report examined the impact of medical costs, the need to buy more expensive food products, and missed days from work.
Toxicologist with SafeFood, Dr James McIntosh, says the costs for families with children with food allergies is significant:
"In monetary terms what that means is if you have a celiac or allergic child, it costs about 500-600 euro a year. It's important to emphasize, these figures are conservative, in other words, they're minimum figures."
"They're calculated on the basis of the minimum wage, so the likelihood is, in the real world, they could be potentially much higher."
