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There has been a sevenfold increase in the most serious type of reaction, anaphylaxis, an immediate, often violent, whole-body response which requires urgent medical treatment. This has risen particularly among children under five.

An allergy specialist, Raymond Mullins, reported on the alarming rise in the Medical Journal of Australia. A big increase in the number of hospital admissions was reflected in private allergy practices nationwide and was probably the tip of the iceberg, he said.

He described food allergies as the "new kid on the block", a relatively recent phenomenon unfamiliar to our grandparents, and poorly understood. "We know it's specific to the Western world and that it's more and more common but we don't know why," Professor Mullins said.

The most popular explanation for the increase in allergies - that humans have become too clean for their own good - may help to explain environmental allergens such as dust, but not food. Other possibilities are links to breast milk, an increase in older mothers and greater exposure to potentially allergenic foods.

Peanut allergies are the most common, followed by egg, cows' milk and cashews. Between 1994 and 2005, the number of admissions for allergy attacks rose from 39 in every million children to 194. "People like myself are seeing this kind of extraordinary increase on a smaller scale all over the place so there's a very clear trend, but we just don't understand it," Professor Mullins said.

The number of children seen for allergic problems at his Canberra clinic rose fourfold over 12 years. While there was little change for eczema and hay fever, and a drop in asthma complaints, visits for proven food allergies went up 1200 per cent.