Premium Food Intolerance Test

Here, as a home kit: order online and it is posted to you with lancets, a collection tube, instructions and a prepaid return envelope. Prick a fingertip, fill the tube and post it back the same day; the laboratory tests it against 200 foods and drinks and emails your report within up to 10 working days. No referral and no appointment. The NHS does not offer food intolerance testing; GPs investigate persistent gut symptoms with tests for coeliac disease, inflammation and infection, and manage suspected intolerance with a supervised elimination diet.

£179 for this 200-food home kit, including laboratory analysis and the colour-coded report. Home IgG intolerance tests in the UK range from about £60 for 40 foods to £300 for the broadest panels; this one sits in the middle on price with one of the largest food lists, including drinks, spices and herbal teas that smaller panels leave out.

A food allergy is an immune reaction driven by IgE antibodies. Symptoms come on within minutes to two hours, itching, hives, swelling, vomiting, wheeze, and can be life-threatening. A food intolerance does not involve IgE and is never anaphylactic; symptoms such as bloating, wind, cramps, loose stools, headaches, fatigue or skin flares build over hours or days and are dose-related, so a little may be fine and a lot is not. This test measures IgG, not IgE, so it is for intolerance-type symptoms. If you have ever had swelling, breathing difficulty or hives after eating, you need an allergy test, not this one.

Your immune system makes IgG antibodies to food proteins it encounters, and the level varies from food to food and person to person. This test measures those levels for 200 foods and reports each as normal, borderline or elevated. An elevated result shows a heightened immune response to that food. A blood test on its own cannot prove that the response is what is causing your symptoms, and IgG levels partly reflect how often you eat a food, so the results are a guide rather than a diagnosis. Their practical value is as a structured starting point for an elimination diet, removing the elevated foods for three to four weeks, then reintroducing them one at a time to see which ones actually change your symptoms, ideally with a dietitian.

Take this test while eating your normal diet, because IgG reflects recent exposure and excluding foods beforehand can hide them. When the report arrives, list the elevated and borderline foods, remove them for three to four weeks while keeping a symptom diary, then reintroduce one food every three days and note any return of symptoms. The foods that reliably bring symptoms back are your intolerances; the ones that do not can go back in your diet. Do not remove whole food groups long term without dietetic advice, particularly dairy and grains.

No to all three, and it is important to know why. Lactose intolerance is a shortage of the enzyme lactase, not an immune reaction, so it does not show in antibody testing; it is diagnosed by a hydrogen breath test or a supervised trial off lactose. Coeliac disease is an autoimmune reaction to gluten diagnosed with tissue transglutaminase antibodies and a biopsy; this test includes gliadin IgG and IgA, which can suggest gluten sensitivity, but a raised gliadin result is not a coeliac diagnosis and a normal one does not exclude it. If you suspect coeliac disease, take our Coeliac Screen Blood Test (£179) before cutting out gluten, because the test only works while you are eating it. IBS is diagnosed on symptoms once other causes are excluded, and a low-FODMAP diet, not IgG testing, is the recognised dietary approach.

200 items grouped into cereals and grains, dairy and eggs, meat and poultry, fish and shellfish, fruit, vegetables and legumes, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices, and drinks. The drinks section is unusually complete: coffee, black and green tea, rooibos, hibiscus, hops, and individual wine grapes from cabernet sauvignon to riesling. Less common items include quinoa, spelt, chia, hemp, spirulina, seaweed, goat and sheep's milk, and game meats. The full list is shown on this page.

Bloating, wind, stomach cramps, loose stools or constipation, nausea, headaches or migraine, tiredness or brain fog after eating, joint aches, and skin problems such as eczema flares, itching or hives that are not immediate. Symptoms typically appear several hours to two days after the food, which is why the culprit is hard to identify by trial and error, and why a structured elimination and reintroduction is more reliable than guessing.

No preparation and no fasting. Eat normally, and in particular do not exclude suspected foods in the weeks before the test: if you have not eaten a food for several months, your IgG to it falls, and it can read as normal even if it affects you. Take the sample at any time of day and post it the same day.

The report lists each of the 200 foods, colour-coded normal, borderline or elevated, with guidance on how to use the results. Use it to plan a three-to-four-week elimination of the elevated foods followed by reintroduction, one food at a time, keeping a symptom diary. If symptoms are severe, persistent, include weight loss, blood in the stool or pain that wakes you, see your GP first: those need investigating, not a diet change. Many people find a dietitian, who can build the elimination plan around the report, is the most effective next step.

Different antibody, different question. The Complete Allergy Blood Test measures IgE to 295 allergens and identifies allergies, including inhaled ones like pollen and dust mite, with immediate symptoms. This test measures IgG to 200 foods and drinks and guides an elimination diet for delayed, digestive-type symptoms. If your symptoms are immediate, or include hives, swelling or breathing problems, take the allergy test. If they are delayed bloating, cramps, headaches or fatigue, this is the one.

Your colour-coded report is emailed within up to 10 working days of your sample reaching the laboratory, with guidance on planning an elimination and reintroduction diet from the results.