When I’m at the grocery store I’ll pick up many different products for a variety of different reasons.

As the grocery shopper for a family with 6 different food allergies, I’m always reading the labels on products that I want to buy.  I check out new products to see if they’re suitable and I review old favorites to be sure that nothing has changed since the last time I purchased them.

But as the owner of a food company, I’m also perusing the food aisles for a whole different set of reasons.  I notice packages that I love the coloring or the artwork, perhaps the size or convenience of something makes me stop to take note or maybe a competitor has changed how they’re packaging their product.

Imagine my surprise when I picked up a new product at the grocery store last week simply because I liked its packaging and got quite a shock when I read the allergen information.  Right off the bat, I’ll tell you it was a natural snack with nuts in it which I already knew was off limits for my family but I read the allergen information anyway and that’s when I saw it:  “Contains nuts.  May contain other allergens not listed.“  Huh? Read more »

Do you ever wonder why you never see the words allergy free on our products or website?

I began using the term allergy friendly about 6 years ago and ever since then have been correcting those who refer to Nonuttin’ products as allergy free.  While I can understand that like “gluten free”, it’s a quick and easy way to refer to products that are designed for those with food allergies, it doesn’t communicate the true reality of food allergies. Read more »

As indicated in an earlier post on our change to take sesame off of our labels, I had indicated that there would be other small changes to the ingredients as well.  These are the changes that you need to be aware of although they will not change any of the top food allergen declarations:

Sugar:   Currently we use a soft brown sugar that is made of cane juice but is refined.  In the new ingredient formulas, this ingredient will be changed to evaporated cane juice which is unrefined.

Chocolate Chips:  Although we are still finalizing this change, if all goes as expected, the new chocolate chips will have the anhydrous dextrose (corn based) removed and an additional ingredient, salt, will be added.  The 70% dark chocolate chunks will remain the same.

Crisp rice:  Not only will the sesame warning be removed due to the new crisp rice, the addition of honey as an ingredient (rice flour, rice bran, raisin juice concentrate, honey, salt), will mean that Nonuttin granola bars and granolas will now no longer be considered vegan as honey is considered an animal by-product. 

As indicated in the Say Goodbye to Sesame post, here are the details about which labels are changing with expected dates:

We will be moving to the new labels for the USA only at first.  This should take place within the next 8-10 weeks and will occur with all of the granola bars and clusters at the same time.

Canadian labels are expected to be changed within the next 4-6 months.  Why?  Health Canada has been promising changes to the allergen and gluten labeling for some time but most recently they have indicated that the new regulations will be posted in Spring 2010 which could be all the way until June.  So that we can make sure that we meet all new regulations, we will be waiting on Canadian packaging changes until those announcements take place.

In the meantime, be sure to read your Nonuttin labels.  If it still has the sesame warning on it, the formula is still containing the current crisp rice, NOT the new.  All new labels will only say:  Contains: soy (chocolate varieties) or May Contain:  soy (fruit varieties).

In last January’s enewsletter, I had mentioned that we had received many requests for products with sunflower seeds.  At that time, I asked for feedback on both the pros and cons after which we received several emails for both sides.

After carefully reviewing the feedback and, in many cases, having further discussions with the people who sent in feedback on the con side, it was evident that sunflower seeds would be overwhelmingly well accepted as long as they were  were controlled on the pouch line only (trail mixes, baking ingredients, etc.) in the same manner that we currently control the soybeans. Read more »