Celeriac Allergy

[Gin62]

Last friday evening, we had paying guests and english friends for the evening meal, we started with celeriac rapé with jambon de bayonne garnished with anchovies and Capers.( Rick Stein recipe) A little while afterwards our female friend said her tongue felt funny and her throat was closing up. She refused the offer of our doctor but asked for an antihistamine, as she sometimes has a problem with strange cats. It didn't get any worse and ice cream slipped down well. It was an interesting talking point for all of us and her nodding or shaking her head in reply. We deducted she had never had celeriac before, but had eaten all the other ingredients.  She was returning to UK the following morning and promised to seek medical help if it got any worse. We had an email on her return and she was told by her doctor that an allergy to penicillin is linked to a problem with celeriac. We only gave her the antihistamine because she is a long standing friend and she had her her husband with her, and that she had left hers at the hotel. We would never ever give anything to paying guests

[JohnRoss]

Does sound like an allergic reaction in which case antihistamine was the best first aid treatment I would have thought. It seems strange that someone had never had celeriac before but a few years ago we had a similar event with a diner guest who had a tuna salad as a starter and by the time she had got through the main course started to feel really ill and was violently sick. Turns out that she had never eaten tuna before and that was undoubtedly the cause of her reaction. I am always a bit cautious about eating cold seafood and recently had a short lived allergic reaction to something I had eaten in a restaurant in Brittany, not sure what but it might have been a prawn starter. Face red and blotchy and red itchy palms, this was about 12 hours later so not always an immediate response. Can be a real emergency if the air-way gets blocked by swelling............................JR 

See http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000005.htm

[cooperlola]

When I was in hospital after my accident I developed an allergic reaction in the form of blotchy, red itchy skin which the medics told me was a reaction to penicilin.  I found this very odd as I (in common I believe with many of my generation) had been given the stuff many times before when I was young.  I thus questioned the diagnosis and also felt that it was a small price to pay for the antibiotics - what harm was a bit of a rash?

I was told that it is not uncommon to develop a reaction to penicilin late in life and that, what was more, a rash could just be the beginning and that if I was given it again I could easily go into full anaphylactic shock.

Glad your friend was OK.

[Patf]

I have an allergy to penicillin too, Coops. Started when in my 30s.

But the link with celeriac is very strange. So I wonder if celeriac has antibiotic properties?

[bubbles]

I seem to remember being told at some time that you can only take so much penicillin in your lifetime and when you have used up your quota you are likely to suffer side effects.

I had meningitis as a baby and was given extremely high doses (which cured me!) but, when I was given more high doses for a bad middle ear infection, it caused problems.

[AnOther]

The penicillin/celeriac connection must be an individual response as I'm allergic but eat celeriac with no ill effects whatsoever.

For the the avoidanec of conjectute or speculation my taking of penecillin was when I was 8 !

[nectarine]

Googling "allergy to celeriac" I got several references to it being a fairly common thing, and this:

Celery is one of the most common foods to cause oral allergy syndrome in adults in countries such as Switzerland, France and Germany. (See the section on fruit and vegetable allergy for more on oral allergy syndrome.) Allergy to celeriac (the celery root) is more common than to celery (the stalks of the plant), but both can sometimes cause severe reactions. Symptoms vary from mild ones, such as oral allergy syndrome, to anaphylactic shock. Some reports suggest that celery spice is as likely to cause a reaction in sensitive people as raw celery.

That's weird, I would have thought celery was fairly innocuous but it sounds like quite a common thing. Glad your guest is OK though.

[cooperlola]

I've never found out if I've developed an allergy to celery/celeriac as a result as I think the stuff tastes quite revolting.  Now I have a good excuse not to eat it to boot!

[Richard51]

I'm (very) allergic to penicillin - discovered at the age of 4 when I went into shock and had to have an airway inserted.  I was told never to take it again as next time would be 'Goodnight Vienna'.   However, I have never had a problem with either celery or celeriac.

Mrs R51