Food allergies can strike anyone at any age and anywhere when it is triggered. And since it can be fatal, properly identifying if a person has one is critical. However, new findings are stirring up clinicians as diagnosing people through some basic tests alone aren't enough to identify these food allergies.

Food allergies occur when proteins resist the heat of cooking, acid in the stomach, and the intestinal digestive enzymes. These surviving proteins, or allergens, are able to enter the bloodstream and go to the organs which will then cause an allergic reaction throughout the body, MedicineNet.com explained.

And to identify food allergies, clinicians run tests on their patients to determine what food they are allergic to.

But increasingly popular diagnostic tools in identifying them in the past years are skin-prick testing and blood tests - these however, should not be used as a standalone diagnostic strategy, according to leading allergists Robert Wood of Johns Hopkins Children's Center and Scott Sicherer of Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York.

The allergists warned that skin and blood tests should not be used as a general screens to look for allergies in symptom-free children; in children with history of allergic reactions to specific foods; and to test for drug allergies.

Instead, test results should be interpreted in the context of a patient's symptoms and medical history, if a food allergy is suspected. What Sicherer and Wood recommended was for patients to undergo a food challenge, the gold standard for objective allergy testing.

In a food challenge, patients and doctors are masked so that neither of them have an idea which capsules contain the suspected allergens. With a medical worker preparing the capsules, the patient swallows a capsule and the doctor then observes if an allergic reaction will occur. This process is repeated with each capsule so as to accurately and objectively pinpoint the food allergy.

Sicherer and Wood said that undiagnosed allergies can be dangerous, even fatal, but over-reliance on blood and skin tests can lead to a misdiagnosis, which can lead to food restrictions and unnecessary avoidance of environmental exposures, such as pets.

Currently, the most common allergies among kids are: cow's milk, hen's eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soybeans, and wheat. For adults, the most common food allergies are: peanuts, tree nuts, fish, crustaceans, mollusks, fruits and vegetables, reported WebMD.com.