Shellfish Free Diet

General guidelines for a shellfish-free diet

A shellfish allergy is an abnormal response of the body to the proteins found in shellfish. It does not necessarily imply a fish allergy. There are two main classes of shellfish. The mollusks include clams, oysters, scallops, chitins, and shelled, sedentary animals. A mollusk allergy may involve a cross-reaction into many of the members of that family. The second class of shellfish is called the crustaceans. This includes, crab, shrimp, lobster, and crawfish. A crustacean allergy may cross react into other members of this group. Persons usually become allergic to one class or the other, but rarely they may react to both. In order to avoid foods that contain shellfish, it is important to read food labels.

If you are allergic to mollusks, be sure to avoid foods that contain any of the following ingredients:

• Abalone
• limpets
• clams (cherrystone, Razor, manila, littleneck, pismo, quahog)
• mussels
• oysters
• scallops
• cockles, periwinkles, sea urchins
• squids, octopus, cuttlefish, nautilus,
• chitons

If you are allergic to crustaceans, be sure to avoid the foods that contain any of the following ingredients:

• crabs (king, dungeness, soft shell, red, blue, etc.)
• crawfish, crayfish, ecrevisse
• lobster, langouste, langoustine, scampo, coral, tomalley
• shrimp, prawns, scampi, crevette

If you are not sure if you react to mollusks or crustaceans, avoid all of the shellfish on these lists.
Some products are derived from mollusks or shellfish and should be avoided. A recent over the counter preparation of glucosamine is in this category.