Allergysmarts is a new company with a whole lot of experience.  The people behind Allergysmarts have been helping people with food intolerance for years, and know what a difference testing can make.

We also know that a pretty looking test report is not enough to give you all the help you need.  You deserve to have someone who can answer your questions and help steer you on the right path. That's why every Allergysmarts food intolerance test includes a free consultation with a nutritionist.

The Allergysmarts Advantage

The Allergysmarts Food Intolerance Test measures levels of IgG antibodies to 95 different foods plus Candida. An antibody is a highly specialized protein molecule that binds to a specific target molecule known as an antigen. All foods have antigen molecules on them, and it is these food antigens that can sometimes trigger the production of antibodies. The immune system produces antibodies to fight off molecules it thinks are foreign to the body.

Allergysmarts tests for the presence of these antibodies by a method known as ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay). To measure the number of antibodies, food antigens must first be chemically bonded to the surface of a plastic tray containing multiple wells. Each of these wells is coated with the food antigens of one specific food.  Up to 96 foods can be tested on a single tray for any given patient. Measured amounts of the patient's blood are placed in each well and then the entire tray is treated with a series of chemical solutions. Eventually a color develops in each well, and the intensity of the color is measured by a machine called a spectrophotometer. The degree of color change reflects the amount of antibody produced specifically for the food present in that well. The color for each food is compared to known standards to determine how much of a reaction has taken place: is the food non-reactive, slightly reactive or very reactive to the patient's blood.

ELISA techniques have been in use for decades, are very reliable and well understood. Done under ideal conditions, the variation between the results for the same blood tested on different trays, days or weeks apart, should be no more than 5 to 10%. However, depending on how the laboratory tests the reference standards and how the assay trays are made, the variations could be much higher. Allergysmarts goes the extra distance to ensure our IgG food intolerance testing is of the highest possible quality.

The Allergysmarts Quality Difference

Standardization

There are two options for testing the standards: the way most labs do things and, the Allergysmarts way.

Most labs:

• process the tray of standards separately, as if it was a patient sample.
• compare the colors on each patient tray to the colors on the standard tray.
• risk having patient trays encounter conditions different from those for the standard tray (such as longer/shorter reaction time, higher or lower temperature, or variation in the pipette which delivers serum to the tray). Thus, the colors may not develop in the same way, and the patient results may not be accurate.

Allergysmarts:

• ensures that a set of standards is placed on each individual patient's tray.
• ensures that the colors for the patient are always comparable to the standards because the standards experience the exact same conditions as the patient sample.
• removes an important source of possible error.

Quality Control

The assay trays (that contain the food antigens) must be manufactured under the strictest quality control procedures to prevent contamination and to ensure there is no variability from batch to batch. There are two ways of manufacturing the assay trays:  the way most labs do it, and the Allergysmarts way.

Most labs:

• make their own assay trays by coating the wells with food antigen solutions they cook up themselves. 
• This saves money, but can result in wide variation between successive batches of trays. In other words, testing the same sample on two different batches of trays could result in big differences – and you won't know what to believe

Allergysmarts:

• purchases commercially manufactured assay trays made under the strict quality control procedures of both ISO (International Standards Organization) and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards.  The trays undergo extensive quality control testing prior to release, all but eliminating the possibility of tray to tray variability.
• By using GMP manufactured plates, Allergysmarts tests are highly reproducible; meaning that the same sample tested on trays with different lot numbers will produce the same results.