Why is there more nut allergies now than there was 20 years ago?

The previous answers do have some truth, or testing is more accessible and accurate now.

However, the biggest link seems to be the wide availability of processed foods now, when there used to be none-or limited availability. Many foods are processed in plants that use nuts for a product, and that dust can easily transfer.

You have to read package labels in order to be sure, some products can guarantee no nut contact, while most can not.

better testing more people reporting it. testing is better and they can do things to help

genetics

Because there are more nutjobs out there worrying about nothing.

Oh my goodness! There are more of every allergy out there. We didn't know half of what we know now. Like everything else, it was around, but we didn't know about it. The more we learn about diseases the more we can get/have. Ain't it just grand?!?! I could, at this moment, have something not discovered for another 5 years from now. In 5 years I'll be saying, "that's what that is!!"

I wish I knew. When I was growing up (1960's), nobody was allergic to peanuts, or there were so few it was never an issue I heard of. This might be a long shot, but in the last 10-20 years, anti-bacterial soaps and purified water became a big thing. As our bodies adjusted to these "sterilized" items, we also compromised our immune systems leaving them open for allergies and infections. Just a guess, but when I was a kid, I never met a kid who couldn't eat a peanut butter sandwich !

20 years ago there wasn't as much medical knowledge or techniques, like tests etc...to tell wether a person was allergic to nuts or any other foods. Now that doctors can do specific and individual tests for different foods it is easier to to tell who has the allergies and who has not.

Medical Science has advanced and I think thats the reason

i like victor's answer, I believe you should give him "best answer"..I will go further though and tell you that I am 67 yrs. old and when i was a kid we never heard of People dying from E.Coli, Asian or Aviary flu, mad cow disease, or peanut butter..everybody i knew growing up ate extremely rare steaks, had their bouts of flu without flu shots, and like victor says, everybody ate peanut butter sandwiches..just my two cents worth...