Easter Is Looming! Time To Get Prepared - Episode #9
It’s easter coming up next week, and for those with anaphylaxis and food allergies this is a tough time. Any food related holiday is.
But with a little bit of planning and thought you can be enjoying this holiday instead of dreading it.
As always I want your comments of what you think of ASTV and ask me any question you like and I’ll cover it on a question and answer show next week.
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Try the downloadable WMV version 27MB (should play fine on all machines).
Until next week
Aaron
The below is from my son, william.
hi i liked the ploysteryne eggs very much. last year for ester i had a nut free bunny from markes and spencers it was a good easter for me that year . but this year i feel like its not going to be a great easter this year because every shop that my mum shops too has a nut sign on the back of the egg . so i think its going to be a hard year for me and your son this easter. but i will still try and have fun looking for the easter eggs because every year in easter morning there is a trail of nut free little eggs. when it ends we look up to see where the big easter eggs are.
i hope that your son will have a good ester and u will too! hopfully i will see u again from will
Hi Will
Thank you very much for your comment, we wish you a good easter, and have fun.
Hi Aaron
I was lucky enough to have a tour around the kinnerton factory with the boss, clive beecham ( he’s not there now)some years ago.
As most know the owner had a phone call from a upset mother who wanted to buy nut free chocolate for her child.
This for me is proof that we , as parents can change things for the better for our children as they grow up with allergies.
The factory was built with a dividing wall.
Its common for manufactuers to buy lines and equipment from each other, but most of kinnertons is new.
There is also a special air conditioning to make sure that shared air from the nut zone doesnt come over to the nut free area.
There are two staff changing rooms, with different colour coded clothes, hats and boots.
Two experimental kitchens, one with each side.
( I got to taste a few !)
the staff canteen doenst sell or cook foods with nuts.
There are two delivery and storage areas , so that cross contamination is not possible.
For me the most interesting area was the area being cleaned.
To make the big dairy free bars the whole line of machines was hand cleaned for 6 months before.
The staff had tools like toothbrushes and worked in shifts with breaks so that they didnt loose concentration while cleaning.
This cost the company a lot of money to set up, and it was handy that the factory was able to fit in the nut free zone in its design while building it.
I also had a brief tour around the weetabix factory ( horrible smell, burnt wheat, yuk) and they explained their labeling system.
If you understand how our food is made, we can have a clearer idea of what ‘may contain’ really means.
have a good easter.
sarah
Wow what an opportunity for you, thanks for sharing that, I did not know about that.
Ah yes food labeling I haven’t even got into that on the show, but we’ve written about it on the blog before.
Since you mention it, would you share your take on the ‘may contain’ topic.
Aaron
‘may contain’ is a risk.
It’s wide spread use by the manfacturers and supermarkets has ,in some opinons, caused reactions/deaths.
Yes , that simply having a ‘may contain’ can cause death seems impossible!
This is all due to the belief that the various companies are covering their backs, and that there is a low risk , if any at all.
However, for the UK since nov 05 , when new rules enforced the ‘allergy box ‘ (and in ingrediant listing) 12 major allergens.
The label ‘may contain’ has also to only be listed if there is a clear risk.
The danger of ‘may contain nut traces’ is that its meaning can include small traces in food products, and also apply to chunks or whole nuts in a product.
The label ‘may contain’ on a biscuit may mean this………..
A long factory line ,makes a huge batch of hazelnut choc chip cookies. Then when that batch has finished, they simply start making the next batch of shortbread fingers.
The first early biscuits pick up the lumps, then so on and so one until traces are all thats left.
It IS a form of russion roulette.
Sometimes two different lines may have one with nuts and one without, but they share a common peice of machinery, like the wrapping machine. Of course this is a cross contamination risk. But this will mean that a product is labeled ‘may contain’.
Another high risk is of course confectionary.
All chocolate factorys ( apart from the rare ones like kinnerton) use a method called ‘re-work’ to clean their chocolate lines.
For UK this means, like cadburys, they make a batch of fruit and nut choc bars, then they need to make the plain bars. They send a batch of chocolate down the line to pick up all the loose biscuit and nuts.
Then they simply add it back into the pot of choc for the plain bars. These lumps and whole nuts are in chocolate labelled ‘may contain’.
I do have some photos of such bars with lumps of whole nuts in BTW
This chocolate is also used to make the small different chocolates in boxes. It doenst matter if the turkish delight donest say anything about nuts, the chocolate will still have a high risk of having nuts/traces in it.
There have been deaths/near death reactions from such risks taken.
Its also worth pointing out that UK mars bars are made on the same line as snickers.
Even if you are careful and avoid eating any foods that have the ‘may contain’ its easy to make a mistake.
Galaxy chocolate bars have, like many manufactures , more than one factory making the same product.
Some of those factories may have other lines with nuts on site.
So the same wrappers, but only one may have small warning ‘may contain nut traces’
This also leads to seasonal mistakes. Like ice lollys and ice creams. Summer produces a high demand for such products, and this area effects more than just the nut allergic, the dairy,/ fruit allergies are included in the ‘may contain’ label, that might surprise you.
As a allergic consumer, there is only one way to really judge if a new product is safe, and thats to ask. To look on the internet, to send an e-mail .
Its all too easy to get cross with manufacturers, but its worth pointing out that although the new techology is here for testing traces of peanut ( for e.g) its testing of all areas is expensive, and it does take time to get results, because the company has to PROVE that they are free of an allergen.
For some manufacturers this is more difficult than others, think of a bakers, and the flour spreading around a large area. Stopping allegens from being transported this way is difficult, to say the least.
Sometimes the sheer cost of testing means that manufacturers are finding the whole process difficult.
As a parent, I have to admit that this was a difficult lesson to learn.
When our son was 2 he had a mild reaction to some biscuits with a may contain label.
Our immunogist at the time, had no idea how to support us , after all HE had never had to feed an allergic child.
They dont shop for allergic children either.
Recently they are better educated about the background work in keeping a young child reaction free.
We dont let our son eat ‘may contains’ in any form.
William is currently happy with this arangement.
But because I have met a few adult allergic people , I am aware that they ALL at some time eat ‘may contains’.
Some stop when they are run down or ill, or wont eat the food when on their own.
This again is a personal comfort zone, for each individual.
So I am sure that when my son is older he will expand his diet to include ‘may contains’.
So we just concentrate on teaching him how our food is made, what goes in to it, and hopefully let him make an informed choice.
I have also seen a slow movement in the allergy free section of foods. Most still are only for the intolerant consumer, but there are some more choices for the classic food allergic.
But thats my Uk point of view, I have no idea how things are on your side of the world!!!
If those reading this don’t sense the passion in Sarah about this topic then you need to re-read it again.
This is a big deal and I will cover it in a future episode.
Since Melanie is camera shy I’ll quote some of her comments on this topic on the show.
Would love to hear what others think about “May Contains”
[...] Also thanks to Sarah for such a great comment on last episode and William for sharing his easter feelings. It made my son’s day. Check out those comments here under the video. [...]