New IBS Food Trigger Test: A More Targeted Approach to Digestive Symptoms

If you live with bloating, abdominal discomfort, constipation, diarrhea, or unpredictable digestive symptoms, you may already suspect that certain foods are making things worse. The difficult part is figuring out which foods actually matter to you.

We’re now offering the CanAlt inFoods® IBS Test, a targeted blood test designed specifically to help identify potential dietary triggers in people with IBS. Unlike broad food-sensitivity panels, this test focuses on 18 foods selected specifically for their relevance to IBS.

Why Identifying IBS Triggers Can Be So Difficult

IBS is considered a disorder of gut-brain interaction, and symptoms can be influenced by several factors including intestinal motility, food, stress and individual sensitivity. This is one reason why two people with IBS can react very differently to the same meal.

Dietary changes such as a low-FODMAP diet can be helpful, but they can also involve temporarily removing a long list of foods and then carefully reintroducing them. The American College of Gastroenterology emphasizes that the goal should ultimately be personalization—avoiding only the foods that actually cause problems rather than unnecessarily restricting the diet long term.

That is where the inFoods® IBS approach becomes interesting.

What Does the inFoods® IBS Test Measure?

The test uses a small capillary blood sample to measure elevated IgG antibody responses to 18 IBS-relevant foods. Each food has its own IBS-specific threshold rather than simply reporting whether food IgG antibodies are present.

Foods tested include:

• Wheat
• Cow's milk
• Whole egg
• Corn
• Oats and rye
• Soy
• Walnut
• Honey
• Cocoa
• Yeast
• Cabbage
• Orange, lemon and grapefruit
• Pineapple
• Cane sugar
• Black tea

The result for each food is presented as positive or negative, helping create a much more focused elimination strategy.

The Research Is What Makes This Test Particularly Interesting

Food IgG testing has historically been controversial because simply having IgG antibodies to a food does not necessarily mean that food is causing symptoms.

The inFoods® IBS test is different because the specific assay and elimination strategy were evaluated in an eight-centre, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled clinical trial published in Gastroenterology in 2025.

Among 223 participants included in the analysis:

59.6% of people following the test-guided diet achieved at least a 30% reduction in abdominal pain, compared with 42.1% following the sham diet.

Results were particularly notable in:

• IBS with constipation: 67.1% responded versus 35.8% with the sham diet.
• Mixed IBS: 66% responded versus 29.5% with the sham diet.

Michigan Medicine gastroenterologist and study lead Dr. Prashant Singh summarized the distinction from earlier food IgG testing simply:

“This latest test is supported by science.”

Researchers were also appropriately cautious: they concluded that the findings are promising but that larger studies are still needed to validate the results. The study was funded by Biomerica, the developer of the test technology.

A More Personalized Way to Approach Food

Rather than eliminating gluten, dairy, FODMAPs, sugar and numerous other foods simply because they might be a problem, this approach may help narrow the investigation to a smaller number of specific foods.

That can mean a simpler and less restrictive elimination period, followed by controlled reintroduction to determine whether those foods genuinely influence your symptoms. CanAlt recommends using the results alongside a qualified practitioner rather than viewing the test as a stand-alone diagnosis.

Who Might Consider the Test?

The inFoods® IBS Test may be worth discussing if you:

• Have IBS or recurring IBS-like digestive symptoms.
• Frequently experience bloating or abdominal discomfort after eating.
• Struggle with constipation, diarrhea, or a combination of both.
• Feel certain foods are causing problems but cannot identify which ones.
• Have tried broad elimination diets and want a more targeted approach.

Important: This test does not diagnose IBS, food allergy, celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, or other gastrointestinal conditions. Persistent or unexplained digestive symptoms should always be properly assessed, particularly when accompanied by symptoms such as bleeding, unexplained weight loss or other concerning changes.

Now Available

The CanAlt inFoods® IBS Test is now available through us for clients looking for a more personalized approach to understanding possible food-related IBS triggers.

Instead of continuing to guess what to remove from your diet, testing may provide useful information that can help guide a more focused conversation about nutrition and digestive health.