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December 6, 2005

Use common sense when it comes to foods

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) has a great service of email alerts when a manufacture discovers a mislabeling on one of their products. You should subscribe to this service.

Sometimes, however, we see these notices and ask, "Yeah, but what parent with a food allergy child would buy this stuff?" Here's an example

Special Allergy Alert Notice

PECAN ALLERGY ALERT

September 14, 2005

Dancing Deer Baking Co. is recalling its 20-oz. Maple Pumpkin Cranberry Cake due to undeclared pecans. Maple Pumpkin Cranberry Streusel Cakes were mislabeled with a Maple Pumpkin Cranberry Cake label which did not contain pecans.

Now, I'm sure that the people at Dancing Deer Baking Co. are very nice (I mean, just look at the company name). It's just that with 8 plus years experience of keeping our kids safe, we tend to stick with either the major food companies or the real specialists. If Kraft or Hersheys, for instance, put something on their label, you can be pretty sure its not a mistake (yes, I know they've made some mistakes too, not very often though). The same is true for Cherry Brook Kitchen, their business RELIES on getting the ingredients right every time.

So, if your child has a severe food allergy, make good choice about what foods you bring into your home and avoid the panic when you get the FAAN email alerts.

Posted by David at December 6, 2005 8:55 AM

Comments

Good point. We only buy from the large companies that have a solid reputation. They still make mistakes, but the risk is somewhat minimised.

Also to note is that different countries have different labeling laws, if at all. So if you are buying something that's imported, then be careful, because they may not be required to disclose all the ingredients that are acutally used.

Food-russian-roulette anyone? Not for us.

Aaron

Posted by: Aaron Dwyer at December 6, 2005 9:41 PM