The Massachusetts law requires restaurant managers to go through a training session about food allergies.

WSJ: Finding Food Allergy Allies

But statistics don't matter much if it's your child that's shot, said Missy Carson Smith, founder of Gun Safe Mom, a campaign to make the gun question as common as asking about food allergies, swimming pools and video game limits.

CNN: Before the play date, the gun talk

Food allergies affect about 4 percent of adults and 6 to 8 percent of children under 3, according to the Mayo Clinic.

CNN: 'Exciting' advance reported in peanut allergy therapy

The idea for using this for food allergies had been dismissed until about five or 10 years ago because of the side effects, Nowak-Wegrzyn said.

CNN: 'Exciting' advance reported in peanut allergy therapy

The CDC survey suggests that about 1 in 20 U.S. children have food allergies.

NPR: Study: Food, Skin Allergies Increasing In Children

Factors that can affect food choices range from religion to morality to concerns about obesity and allergies.

FORBES: Back to School: Special Food Needs

The recent NICE guidance on food allergy is a good first step but until medical students are properly taught about allergies, patients will get a raw deal.

BBC: Children with allergies 'being let down'

Dixon-Woods agrees that better food labeling, more education, and stricter regulation is necessary to reduce misunderstanding and negative attitudes about nut allergies especially in the United States, where peanut-based products are ubiquitous and the word allergy is frequently used to describe non-life-threatening conditions such as hay fever.

CNN: Kids with nut allergies feel teased, excluded