OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the ability of relatives of patients with cow's milk allergy to identify terms related to cow's milk on labels of manufactured products. METHODS: Cross-sectional descriptive study based on interviews with relatives of patients with cow's milk allergy. Initially, a questionnaire about the habit of reading labels and the identification of terms related to cow's milk was applied. Next, 12 original labels of manufactured products were shown to the interviewees so that they could decide whether to exclude or not those products from the patient's diet. RESULTS: Of the 52 interviewees, 80.8% were mothers and 79.0% had at least 8 years of schooling. The median time of follow-up after receiving information about exclusion diet was 2 years and 7 months (from 3 months to 17 years and 6 months). The habit of reading labels of foods, drugs and cosmetics was reported by 57.7, 59.6, and 46.2% of the relatives, respectively. Among the allergic reactions during follow-up, 39.5% were related to mistakes when reading labels. Lactose, casein, and caseinate were the terms identified by 92.3, 38.5, and 23.1% of the family members, respectively. Lactate was interpreted as presence of cow's milk by 51.9% of the interviewees. During the second phase of the study, family members identified lactose (55.8%), casein (26.9%) and caseinate (5.8%) as related to cow's milk. CONCLUSION: There was a deficient understanding and identification of cow's milk-related terms in spite of previous counseling. It is important to improve labels and to establish new strategies that allow lay people to identify labels of products containing cow's milk.
Food hypersensitivity; milk hypersensitivity; food labeling; parents; knowledge; manufactured foods
