Hypersensitivity to certain food and food ingredients in the function of age and employment of customers on a cruise ship

Abstract

Over the last few decades there has been a tendency to use the word 'allergy' to describe all kinds of unexpected reactions to certain foods and food ingredients. The recent literature is plentiful and discusses food allergens and people who are hypersensitive to certain foods. The literature suggests the prevalence of food allergy to specific allergens to be changing with age. The aim of this empirical research was to examine the hypersensitivity to certain foods in relation to age and employment of the population consisting of customers on cruise ships. The study included 404 tourists on a cruise ship who voluntarily filled food sensitivity questionnaires and submitted them to the ship staff. These questionnaires were used to analyze the allergy trends and their connection to age and employment. The procedures of descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used to process the obtained data. The results of the research suggested that there was a statistically significant relationship between the persons who were hypersensitive to certain foods relative to employment and age.

Keywords

• hypersensitivity
• tourist
• food ingredients
• food allergy
• prevalence
• river cruises