Egg white allergy question?

Question

I am allergic to egg whites since I can remember. I could eat the yolk of an egg but never the egg white. However I am confused as to why I am able to eat things like bread, some cakes and pastries that have the use of egg in them. However some cakes and soufflés gives me an allergic reaction. Can anyone relate?

Answer 1

You may be surprised, as I was recently, that some of the supermarket breads do not contain egg at all.

Also, some mass-produced baked goods use dried eggs. Maybe the drying process denatures the protein or the allergen in the egg whites.

Answer 2

This is a simple matter of chemistry. Ever notice how when you break open an egg the egg "white" is actually see through?
Well when you fry it the oil and heat cause microscopic bubbles to form, also the proteins in the egg white denaturate.
The bubbles and the denaturation cause the eggwhite to turn, white. The bubbles are also a reason milk is white.

Some background on allergens:
1. albumin
2. egg in any form (including whole egg, dried egg, powdered 3.egg, egg solids, egg yolk, egg white, egg white solids, and egg substitute)
3. globulin
4. livetin
5. lysozyme
6. ovalbumin
7. ovoglobulin (and any other ingredients that begin with the prefix "ovo," including ovomucin, ovomucoid, ovotransferrin, ovovitella, and ovovitellin)
8. silici albuminate
9. Simplesse (a fat replacer)
10. vitellin
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Look for these on labels, they can cause your allergy to act up. If, however, you have just a mild reaction you should be able to eat small quantities of most of these.

Also recently eggs are becoming less and less used in the making of factory produced food. It takes too much time on the assembly line to individually break eggs and send them in, and already prepeared eggs cost more so the egg has been reserved for at home or restoraunt use where proper time can be taken in prepearing the egg.

Hope I helped, and watch yourself :)

Answer 3

Your ability to eat products containing egg is most likely a function of concentration. A loaf of bread only contains a couple of eggs at most in the entire loaf. So if you eat a couple of sandwiches you're only getting between 1/4 and 1/2 of an egg. This small amount together with all the other food in the bread and sandwich would not impact your system enough to notice.

Mean while, some other foods have a much higher concentration of egg. Or the other ingredients are not nutritionally substantial enough to dilute it.

Answer 4

I think it's the quantity of egg . . .

"Mildly egg allergic children can often eat food prepared with small amounts of egg e.g., cakes, muffins, without an immediate reaction. However, these trace quantities may aggravate eczema, and may cause the egg allergy to stay longer. Therefore unless told otherwise, all eggs should be avoided, even in traces in baked goods" site below

You mentioned souffles being a problem - huge quantity of egg white.

Answer 5

I have a food sensitivity to eggs, and can eat something that contains eggs every few days with few ill effects. Angel food cake and meringues, french toast, etc. cause a reaction, if the egg content is a small percentage, it seems to do little harm if consumed in moderation.