Many parents refused to take their children to see last year's film “Peter Rabbit” because the movie includes a scene in which Peter and a gang of bunnies use blackberries as a weapon to gain access to the veggies in Thomas McGregor's garden.

He's allergic to the fruit, and when the rabbits slingshot a berry into his mouth, he struggles with an EpiPen, experiences anaphylaxis, and collapses. Sony Pictures, the movie’s producer, publicly apologized for this misstep.

Food allergies aren't something to joke about. But that's not the only misunderstanding about this serious medical condition that needs to be called out.

A survey published in JAMA finds that while 10.8 percent of U.S. adults (over 26 million people) actually have a food allergy, almost 20 percent think they do.

What that means is that there's a lot of self-diagnosis going on. And that means people with troubling symptoms are both unnecessarily avoiding certain foods and not getting diagnosed for what is causing their digestive, skin, or other health problems.

Surveying more than 40,000 people, the researchers found that shellfish, milk, peanuts/tree nuts, and fin fish are the most common food allergies. They also discovered that 48 percent of people with food allergies developed them as an adult.

Think you have a food allergy? Here’s what to do:

Step No. 1: Get tested.

Step No. 2: If diagnosed, get an EpiPen prescription and always carry one. Unfortunately, only about 25 percent of people with food allergies do.

Step No. 3: Read food labels.

Step No. 4: If it turns out you're food-allergy free, but troubled by symptoms such as digestive upset or skin irritation, see an appropriate specialist to determine the cause and find a solution.