Food Sensitivity Testing

The 240-food panel that shows what’s quietly driving your symptoms.

You could be eating the right foods and still feel terrible. Bloating that comes and goes. Fatigue that won’t lift. Headaches, brain fog, skin flare-ups, joint pain. And your standard lab work comes back normal.

The problem might not be what you’re missing. It might be what you’re eating every day.

A food sensitivity is not the same as a food allergy. It’s a delayed immune reaction. Symptoms can show up hours or even days after eating, which is what makes it nearly impossible to connect the dots on your own. You can’t trace it back to one meal.

We use the US BioTek 240 panel to measure how your immune system responds to 240 different foods, spices, and additives. The results show exactly which foods are driving inflammation in your body, so we can build a plan around what’s actually going on.

This test is worth considering if any of this sounds familiar.

Food sensitivity testing isn’t just for people with obvious digestive problems. The symptoms it uncovers are often ones no one has connected to food yet.

• Bloating or digestive discomfort after eating
• Chronic fatigue that doesn’t improve with rest
• Recurring headaches or migraines
• Brain fog or trouble concentrating
• Joint pain or unexplained inflammation
• Skin issues like eczema or frequent flare-ups
• IBS symptoms — constipation, diarrhea, or both
• Autoimmune flares

Here’s something most people don’t expect: you can develop a sensitivity to foods you eat all the time, even foods you’d consider healthy. The more frequently your immune system encounters a food protein, the more likely it is to start reacting to it. That daily smoothie. The eggs every morning. The foods you’ve eaten for years without a second thought.

Standard food allergy tests don’t catch this. They’re designed to detect IgE reactions — the kind that cause hives or anaphylaxis within minutes. The delayed reactions this panel measures are a different thing entirely, and they almost never show up on a standard allergy panel.

If you’ve had bloodwork done and been told everything looks normal, but you still don’t feel right, this test looks at something most standard panels don’t.

What this test actually measures, and why it’s different from a standard allergy test.

Most people have heard of food allergies. This is not that.

A food allergy triggers your IgE antibodies, the ones that cause an immediate, sometimes severe reaction. Hives. Swelling. Anaphylaxis. You know right away something went wrong.

Food sensitivities work differently. They trigger IgG and IgA antibodies, and the reaction is delayed. Symptoms can show up anywhere from a few hours to three days after eating. By then, you’ve had multiple other meals, and the connection is gone. That’s why so many people carry these sensitivities for years without knowing it.

A good way to think about it: IgE reactions are a fire alarm going off. IgG and IgA reactions are a slow leak, damage builds quietly over time until it becomes a bigger problem.

What the US BioTek 240 panel tests

The panel measures your immune system’s antibody response to 240 different foods, spices, and additives, including grains, dairy, eggs, meats, seafood, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and more. Results are reported at three levels: low, moderate, and high reactivity. That gives us a specific, ranked picture of what your immune system is reacting to and how strongly, not just a yes or no.

Running both IgG and IgA together is useful because they tell us different things. IgG reactions tend to show up as systemic symptoms — fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, skin issues. IgA reactions are more specific to the gut and mucosal tissues, and elevated IgA can be a signal that GI testing is warranted.

A note on food mimicry

One thing we discuss at your results appointment is something called food mimicry. Every food is made up of proteins with a specific molecular shape. When your immune system flags one of those shapes as a threat, it sometimes reacts to other foods that share a similar shape, even foods you’ve never had a problem with before. It’s not a reaction to the food itself; it’s your immune system getting confused by the resemblance.

This is part of why we review your results with you in person rather than just sending them over. Context matters, and some reactions make more sense once we see the full picture.

A positive result doesn’t mean that food is off the table forever

Many sensitivities are reversible. With a structured elimination and reintroduction protocol — and time for the gut to heal — most patients are able to bring reactive foods back in. What your immune system is reacting to today isn’t necessarily a life sentence. The goal is to calm the inflammation, let your gut recover, and then work back toward a broader diet where you can.

How the process works.

Food sensitivity testing isn’t a single appointment. It’s a three-step process: we gather your history, you collect the sample, and then we sit down together to go through what it means and build your plan. Here’s what that looks like.

Step 1: Case Initiation Appointment

Your first appointment is about an hour to an hour and a half. We go through your full health history — symptoms, diet, lifestyle, stress, sleep, anything that’s been going on. This isn’t a quick intake form. It’s a real conversation, because the context around your results matters as much as the numbers themselves.

At the end of this appointment, we order your food sensitivity test along with a comprehensive blood panel. Most functional medicine patients have both run together.

Step 2: Sample Collection

The US BioTek 240 uses an at-home fingertip blood collection kit, no lab visit required. You collect a small sample at home following the instructions in your kit and mail it directly to the lab.

A few things that matter for an accurate sample: continue eating your normal diet beforehand (avoiding foods you normally eat can suppress antibody levels and skew results), stay well hydrated, and ship your sample Monday through Thursday only. Samples that sit in a shipping facility over a weekend can degrade.

Results typically take a few weeks to come back.

Step 3: Review of Findings

We go through your results together in a follow-up appointment. We don’t just send over a report because there’s a lot to interpret, and some of what shows up only makes sense in context. We’ll walk through which foods are reacting and at what level, discuss food mimicry where it’s relevant, and build out your elimination and reintroduction protocol from there.

This is also where we look at how your food sensitivity results connect to the rest of your labs and figure out the right next steps. That might be dietary changes alone, targeted supplements, or adding in gut testing if the picture calls for it.

How this fits into your bigger care picture.

Food sensitivity testing is one of the first things we run on functional medicine patients because what you eat affects everything else. Chronic inflammation from reactive foods can show up as fatigue, hormonal disruption, gut dysfunction, joint pain, or mood issues. Often several at once. Identifying and removing those triggers is usually one of the earliest and most impactful steps in getting the rest of the system working better.

The results don’t exist in isolation. We look at your food sensitivity panel alongside your blood work to understand what’s driving your symptoms and in what order to address things. For some patients, dietary changes alone produce noticeable results within the first few weeks. For others, food sensitivity is one piece of a more complex picture that includes gut testing, hormone panels, or targeted supplementation.

There’s also a connection worth knowing about between food, the gut, and the nervous system. Most of your body’s neurotransmitters — serotonin, dopamine, and others — are actually produced in the gut, not the brain. When the gut is inflamed or reactive, that production is disrupted. So symptoms that seem purely mental or emotional often have a nutritional component underneath them.

If you come in specifically for food sensitivity testing, you’re still welcome here. We’ll start with your case initiation appointment to get the full picture, get your test ordered, and go from there. Some patients discover other areas worth addressing along the way. Some just want the test and the dietary guidance that comes with it. Either is fine, we start where you are.

Common Questions

Can I come in just for the food sensitivity test, or do I need to sign up for full functional medicine care?
You can come in specifically for food sensitivity testing. You don’t need to commit to anything beyond that upfront. That said, we do need to start with a case initiation appointment — about an hour to an hour and a half — to go through your health history before we order any testing. That context shapes how we interpret your results. After that, it’s your call how far you want to take things.

Is this covered by insurance?
We’re an out-of-network provider. The food sensitivity panel is a lab cost you pay directly. We can provide a superbill you can submit to your insurance for potential reimbursement, though coverage varies. If you have questions about cost before booking, call or text us at (402) 881-1563.

My results show I’m reacting to a food I eat every single day. Does that mean I can never eat it again?
Not necessarily. A positive result means your immune system is currently reacting to that food, but it doesn’t mean it always will. Many sensitivities are reversible with a structured elimination period and time for the gut to heal. The goal is to remove the reactive foods, let the inflammation settle, and then work through a reintroduction protocol to see what your body can tolerate again. We’ll walk through all of this with you at your review of findings appointment.

How is this different from just doing an elimination diet on my own?
An elimination diet without data is a lot of guesswork. You might cut gluten and dairy and feel somewhat better, but still be reacting to something else entirely. The panel gives you a specific, ranked list of what your immune system is actually responding to across 240 foods, so you’re not eliminating foods unnecessarily or missing the ones that are actually driving your symptoms. It also flags food mimicry patterns that you’d have no way of identifying on your own.

Do I need to come in person, or can I do this virtually?
Virtual visits are available for functional medicine patients, including food sensitivity testing. Your case initiation appointment and review of findings can both be done via telehealth if that works better for you. The sample collection kit is sent directly to your home, so there’s no in-office visit required for the test itself. If you’re outside the Elkhorn or Omaha area, or just prefer to start from home, that’s an option.