Food Intolerance Testing in Dubai

This assessment suits anyone who suspects food is behind their symptoms, anyone who has already cut out foods without a clear improvement, and anyone who wants to know whether a reaction is an intolerance or an allergy before changing their diet for good.

It is also relevant for people with a family history of coeliac disease, for people with eczema, hay fever or asthma who have noticed reactions to food, and for parents of older children and teenagers whose diet has become restricted.

Swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, difficulty breathing, wheeze or faintness after eating is a possible severe allergic reaction and needs emergency care immediately — not a scheduled test. Blood in your stool, unexplained weight loss or persistent vomiting also need a prompt medical opinion; tell us when you get in touch.

A full food intolerance assessment can look at the markers below. Your physician confirms which are run for you at the consultation, based on your symptoms and history.

The words are often used interchangeably, but they describe different things, and mixing them up leads either to unnecessary restriction or to a real risk being underestimated.

A food allergy is an immune reaction, usually driven by IgE antibodies. It tends to happen within minutes to a couple of hours of eating, can be triggered by small amounts, and can occasionally be severe. A food intolerance does not involve that allergic response. Symptoms are usually digestive, often appear hours later, and tend to depend on how much of the food is eaten.

Allergy is tested with IgE antibodies and, where needed, confirmed by an allergy specialist. Intolerance has no single definitive blood test, and is usually confirmed by removing a food and then reintroducing it under guidance.

Most food intolerance panels, including the ones we offer, measure IgG antibodies to a long list of foods. It is important to be clear about what these results can and cannot tell you.

IgG antibodies to food are common, and many people have them to foods they eat regularly without any symptoms. Several allergy and immunology bodies do not recommend IgG testing to diagnose food intolerance. A raised IgG result does not prove that a food is causing your symptoms, and should never be used on its own to cut out a long list of foods.

What a panel can do is help prioritise. Read by a physician alongside your history and food diary, it can suggest a short list of foods to trial removing first, in a structured elimination and reintroduction. The reintroduction, not the blood test, is what shows whether a food matters.

Gluten and dairy are the two foods people most often remove on their own. It is worth pausing before doing so, particularly with gluten.

Coeliac disease is an autoimmune condition triggered by gluten, and it is different from gluten intolerance. The blood tests for it only work while gluten is still in the diet, so cutting it out first can hide the result. The DQ2 and DQ8 gene test does not depend on diet: if neither gene is present, coeliac disease is very unlikely.

Lactose intolerance, meanwhile, is common and is usually managed by reducing rather than removing dairy. Where dairy is cut out for a long time, calcium and vitamin D are worth checking. If your symptoms go wider than food, our gut health assessment looks at digestion as a whole.

A general guide to how the two usually differ. It is not a way to self-diagnose, and any reaction involving breathing or swelling needs emergency care.

At the results review your physician goes through each result, explains what it means in plain language, and separates what needs acting on from what does not. Where an allergy is suspected, that may mean a referral to an allergy specialist.

For suspected intolerances, the plan is usually a short, structured elimination of a few foods at a time, followed by reintroduction one by one to see what genuinely makes a difference. The aim is the widest diet you can eat comfortably, with nutrient levels checked if restriction continues.