The FAILSAFE diet is a diet designed to be free of additives, low in salicylates, amines and flavour enhancers. It is Sue Dengate 's term for the low-chemical exclusion diet formulated by allergists at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Australia.
It is designed to treat sensitivities to specific man-made and natural flavourings, colourings and preservatives found in foods by eliminating problem foods and replacing them with healthy, low-chemical alternatives.
Sensitivities to food chemicals are pharmacological and dose-related (like the side effects of drugs), rather than immune-mediated like allergies. Different people have different tolerance levels to salicylates, amines, glutamates, sulphites, food colourings and other additives, and sensitivity symptoms (intolerances), occur when a person's tolerance levels are exceeded.