The incidence of food allergy has dramatically increased over the last three decades in industrialized countries, now affecting more than 200 million people worldwide. Treatment options for food allergy are still limited: lifelong avoidance of the allergen is the main approach, followed by allergen-specific oral immunotherapy, which carries inherent risks. Food allergy occurs when type 2 immune responses are dysregulated, leading to production of allergen- specific IgE, and IgE-mediated mast cell degranulation upon re-exposure to the same allergen. Here, the Inventors demonstrate that dietary fructo-oligosaccharides, which are a major class of FODMAPs, can aggravate food allergic reactions through a mechanism involving formation of AGEs and activation of the receptor RAGE, implying that inhibition of the AGE/
AGE pathway represents a potential therapeutic strategy in food allergy.