canned mollusk and king crab legs allergy

[svitreum]

I had a severe hive reaction to canned mussels about 20 years ago and have experienced it with prepared mussels in the midwest as well as king crab legs up to about a year ago. I travel to the coasts to visit my brother/father and eat fresh caught oysters on the half shell and live steamed crab (atlantic blue and dungeness) without any reaction. I am wondering if this is indeed a seafood allergy or some sort of preservative intolerance. Again I have only had this reaction with "prepared/processed" seafood. If anyone can relate or shed some light on this I would greatly appreciate it.





USA

[CMdeux]

Three distinct possibilities come to mind immediately--

1.  You are actually allergic to one very specific type of seafood and not to others-- and your reactions to "processed" seafood are because of cross-contamination with that very particular type, which isn't a problem when you are eating fresh caught stuff because the fishery doesn't overlap with where you are.  I can eat Alaskan salmon just fine-- UNLESS it is processed with crustaceans.  Perhaps you're allergic to a fish, not to a bivalve or crustacean.

2.  You are allergic to something which is incidental to the processing of the seafood that you're eating.  Have you checked labels for other ingredients?  Have you ever had the problem with ANY other processed/restaurant food?  Those might give you clues.

3.  You are not specifically ALLERGIC to anything, but are extremely histamine sensitive-- leading to many of the same symptoms (but usually milder or non-life-threatening) as allergy-- especially hives, GI symptoms, and somewhat distinctly-- MIGRAINES.  If you're unusually sensitive, ANY fish/shellfish products which are not extremely fresh could do this to you, and it might be somewhat random... you might be the only person affected in a group, too.  The term that you'll want to take a look at is Scombroid Fish Poisoning.

[Dawn]

I have the same problem with Alaskan king, Dungeness and Snow crab. I have been able to eat Maryland Blue crab all my life with no reaction at all. I have a violent gastric reaction if I eat the others. I have even burst a blood vessel in my eye from the forceful regurgitation I went through as my body tried to rid itself of every ounce of crab I ingested. I was told by an allergist that I am possibly allergice to whatever is used to process the crab. There may be  some sort of additive or perservative that is added to the dead crab for freshness. Since these products are not cooked live there may be some sort of protein that the dead crab emits. All I know is that I can still eat Maryland blue crab because it is cooked live. So I'm technically not allergice to crab.