Question
Can I safely consume your collagen supplement if I am allergic to chicken or eggs?Patricia
A chicken allergy, though not common, is still experienced by people of all ages. It can cause uncomfortableness or even dangerous symptoms.
Since the ingredients of multi collagen protein supplements contain chicken AND eggshell membrane, this is an important topic for us to educate and then provide honest and clear recommendations.
Quick Answer
Here’s the quick answer from our Dr. Cate:
The answer depends on how severe your reaction is. If it’s a mild reaction, like minor itching, or temporary digestive issues, it’s perfectly safe to give it a try. If you have a life threatening reaction then it’s probably best not to.
However, there is more to it than that. Before we go there, let’s first be clear on the animal sources of our multi collagen.
Multi-source means Multi-animals
Being multi-sourced collagen means we source our ingredients from multiple animals:
- Grass-fed Pasture Raised Beef
- Wild-Caught Fish
- Cage-Free Chickens
- Eggshell Membrane (from chickens, BEGAWK!)
As you can see, half of our sources above (bolded for emphasis) are chicken-based.
How Allergies Work
The way allergies work, whether to chicken or cats or anything else, is related to a reaction your body has to a specific protein in the chicken or cat dander or bee pollen. That specific protein has a specific shape that your body has become sensitized to. If you could remove the specific protein or change its shape, you would not have the same reaction.
How Allergies Work with a Collagen Peptide
What does this have to do with collagen peptides?
The word peptide is there to tell you something important. It’s not an intact protein. It’s not the same shape as it was when it was in the chicken bones and ligaments or the egg albumen. It’s smaller and that means it’s a different shape. When it’s a different shape, your immune system is very unlikely to react to it.Dr. Cate
In other words, if you have a mild chicken allergy reaction, you can most likely safely try our multi collagen peptides. If it’s more severe, even though you’re not likely to react, it’s probably best to err on the side of safety and avoid it.
What if I’m allergic to chicken AND eggs?
Did you know that an egg allergy is much more common than chicken allergy? And, there are those who suffer from both.
Some people who are allergic to chicken are also allergic to eggs. This is known as bird-egg syndrome. People who have bird-egg syndrome are allergic to a substance found in the yolk of eggs and to chicken serum albumin.Healthline.com
As we explored in the 4 Food Groups that Contain Collagen, collagen is mainly found in the eggshell membrane of an egg. There’s not enough evidence to indicate that collagen is also found in the yolk.
Two things to keep in mind as you’re evaluating our multi collagen and your allergies:
- We use chicken bone broth collagen concentrate. This broth includes the whole chicken (skin, cartilage, connective tissues, bones).
- We extract collagen from eggshell membrane. It’s free of yolk, but we use albumen protein from powdered egg whites (in our flavored multi collagen) and eggshell membrane collagen (in our unflavored multi collagen).
Non-Multi Collagen Recommendations
If you’d like to stay away from a multi collagen, we’re still here to help.
Since our mission is to help bring health to all people (see our 3 Founding Pillars), we don’t shy away from encouraging people to try other collagen brands. We realize multi collagen isn’t for everyone. But, collagen and collagen’s benefits are just too awesome to ignore. So in context to this conversation, here are some single-source collagens sans chicken and egg:
Beef-only collagen brands:
Marine-only collagen brands:
- Vital Proteins
- Any other brand that has wild caught fish (stay away from farm-raised)
Why So Serious. Collagen & Safety
If you haven’t noticed, we take education very seriously at CB Supplements. It’s why Collagen College™ exists. It’s also why we brought in the brilliant Dr. Cate, M.D. to provide nutrition and medical guidance (see Dr. Cate supports our brand).
Learn more about collagen safety by exploring our collagen safety topic of Collagen College™.
