We’re putting the finishing touches on our new products that will be ready to launch in mid-February. So far, we’ve introduced 2 of those new products on our Facebook page. We will continue to give you sneak peaks at those products in the next couple of weeks but here is what we’ve shown so far:

Blueberry Maple Granola: With tender little blueberries and maple sugar, you’ll love the blend of 2 Canadian tastes!

Berry Delight Trail Mix: This is our new favorite and I have had to hide the samples. It has softy and yummy blueberries, cranberries, raw sunflower seeds and semi-sweet chocolate chips with just a touch of sea salt. Sunflower seeds are a new ingredient for us… but we had so many people asking for them that it was time to give them a try.

Watch our Facebook page as we update posts several times per week. Don’t forget to give us your feedback too.

Barry Callebaut USA has recalled Kroger Value brand semi-sweet chocolate chips after chips with dairy in them were mistakenly packed in the non-dairy/Kosher pareve packaging for Kroger. The recall notice may be seen at: http://usfoodsafety.com/02af0007.asp and the kosher alert for dairy can be seen at: http://www.ok.org/alerts.asp

I’m bringing this recall to your attention since you may be aware that Barry Callebaut is the manufacturer who produces our semi-sweet mini chocolate chips and 70% dark chocolate chunks in a peanut/nut free plant and on a dairy free line. Our chocolate is manufactured in the Quebec, Canada, plant however, not in the US and is not affected by this recall.

Further, we test every incoming ingredient for several allergens prior to releasing it into the manufacturing process, with dairy being one of the many tests we perform. If we were to discover dairy in any ingredient, it would be isolated in our warehouse and not be allowed into our production area. We would then work with the manufacturer to discover the source of the contamination problem before ordering any more ingredients from them.

If you have any questions, please let our team know at info@nonuttin.com or toll free: 1-866-714-5411.

We’re very lucky that our government in Canada is supportive of small businesses and provides favorable loan programs for the purchase of machinery. Because of a loan through our local Community Futures office, we were able to purchase “Bertha” our packaging machine that puts the packaging around all of our granola bars (we name all of our machinery, including Fabio, our heat shrinker).

Because of that loan a few years ago, we were chosen to be showcased in a series of successful business videos put together by Community Futures BC. That video is now available for viewing on YouTube at: Nonuttin’ Foods on YouTube. Check it out to find out a little bit more about our family business.

FAAMA, The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act was passed into law in the United States after being signed by President Obama on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. So what does this Act mean to you as a food allergic parent?

Here is the official summary of the ACT which was introduced in February 2009:
Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop and make available to local educational agencies, schools, early childhood education programs, and other interested entities voluntary guidelines to develop plans for individuals to manage the risk of food allergy and anaphylaxis in schools and early childhood education programs. Directs that such guidelines address:
(1) parental obligation to provide the documentation of their child’s allergies;
(2) the creation of an individual food allergy management plan for each such child;
(3) communication between schools or programs and emergency medical services;
(4) reduction of exposure to anaphylactic causative agents;
(5) food allergy management training; and
(6) administration of epinephrine.
Allows the Secretary to award matching grants to assist local educational agencies in implementing such food allergy and anaphylaxis management guidelines.

What the law will actually do in its practical application remains to be seen. At the very least, this law should give parents a legal means to fall back on in EVERY state should their school/school district administration not accomodate for their child’s anaphylaxis. Further, it allows for the legal means to give epinephrine, which seems to have been a cause for confusion or inaction in schools.

While there are many teachers and administration who have been wholly supportive of anaphylaxis plans, many parents report to me that they have been treated as second-class citizens in the school system and even have had it suggested that they home school their child. While many allergic parents do pursue this option, it should be by choice, not fear or intimidation. As a former teacher, I can’t imagine that any teacher or school would be apathetic about anaphylaxis but it has been a very real issue for many around the world.

It will take some time for the voluntary guidelines and educational materials to be developed and funding to be provided for training. But in the meantime, a very important first step has been taken for those with anaphylaxis in a school setting.

Just after Christmas I heard that a Chicago teenager had died of anaphylaxis on the last day of school before the Christmas break when she had Chinese food with her classmates. These stories always make me cry because while I cannot understand what it is like to lose a child, I can tell you that I have imagined it more than once. My heart goes out to the family of this child.

From all accounts, this was a child whose parents had well-equipped her for living with her food allergies. School staff had checked on the safety of the food to be served more than once and school officials and classmates were well aware of the peanut allergy. The details have not been released so the public may never know what exactly happened. There is some question of whether epinephrine was injected. The stories indicate that it is against Illinois law for staff to administer epinephrine unless the prescription is specific to the student. If you’d like to know more, you can read the Chicago Tribune article and the Allergic Living article.

I have many questions after reading the accounts; not in the interest of assigning blame but to understand and learn about what I can do with my own child and her school. The accounts indicate that in Illinois students are not allowed to have epipens with them and teachers can’t give another’s epi-pen to a child having a reaction. To me this is highly disturbing. Is this an indication that the fear of liability trumps medically necessary action?

So now you’re wondering, okay Alana, you title says Tragedy and Hope; where’s the Hope part? While we can never bring back these children, we can use these tragedies to better protect all anaphylactic children. After a similar death in an Ontario school, we got Sabrina’s Law. Sabrina’s Law helped provide the background for my province’s anaphylaxis policy and gave allergy advocates around the world a springboard for their own country’s anaphylaxis laws and policies. I have Sara Shannon to thank for making sure that the lessons learned from her daughter Sabrina’s death would not be forgotten. My child has benefited from that advocacy.

To that end, more hope was created yesterday in the US when President Obama signed into law FAAMA. This stands for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act, a national law for all states to protect anaphylactic children in schools. Voluntary guidelines and materials will be created for states to access. You can read the information about what this law means and how it came about on the FAAN website.

I look to these developments with hope to educate all about the very real risks of anaphylaxis and to prevent any more needless deaths.

It’s been one year since we were in the ambulance and to the hospital with Megan’s allergic reaction to kiwi.  When I mentioned it to her on Saturday (the exact anniversary date), she was dismayed.  In her eyes, remembering the date was the last thing she wanted to think about since she has no desire to ever go through that again. 

Believe me, I have absolutely no desire to go through that again either.  It was the first time she had a reaction in 9 years, the first time she was without us during a reaction, the first time she had to call 911 and the first time she had to self-inject the epi-pen.  And not only did we need to deal with the medical emergency with her, we had to emotionally deal with her older sister who was traumatized by the incident and our friend’s son who had offered our daughter the drink that Megan reacted to even though it wasn’t his fault.

As much as I want to follow Megan’s advice and forget about that last reaction, I can’t, nor do I feel I should.  I feel that we had gotten complacent because we had been so careful for so long and that was part of the reason why the reaction occurred.  It’s not that we started cutting corners like eating food products that had “may contain” on them or that we stopped checking out ingredients in the grocery store.

The complacency was more about thinking that our “safe” places (as my girlfriend’s house where the reaction occurred normally is), were absolute and that all items provided in those safe places didn’t need another check.  A  simple check of the Koala brand lemonade spritzer would have quickly revealed that it was a kiwi-lemonade drink.  But that didn’t happen.

So I need to remember and also climb down off of my high horse.  Our allergist had been surprised that despite Megan’s extremely high test numbers, we had not had a reaction for so long.  I wore it like a badge of honour (see how good I am with managing the food allergies).  Now, I think that diligence is absolutely necessary but sometimes it’s also about being lucky. 

So Rob and I are doing our best to manage the complacency that can creep back in when you don’t even know it.  We will continue to remind our children, all family members and others that come in contact with our allergic child.  But I’ll also cross my fingers and toes plus pick all of the four leaf clovers that I can find.  Whatever it takes to get us through another year.

Last year I wrote a grinchy post.  Yes, me, usually overly optimistic, glass is full kinda gal.  But I couldn’t help it.  It was the first time in a  long time that I had hosted my whole family for Christmas for a week plus I had an exchange student from France who couldn’t eat dairy.  Add that in to our 6 food allergies, it was liking going back to when the girls were little and we had to avoid dairy too.  Plus I’m a perfectionist so the house cleaning, baking, decorating, etc. had to be just so before everybody arrived.  My husband and children wisely kept quiet.

Skip forward a whole year and I’m in a less grinchy frame of mind.  I’m still trying to get 5 new products finalized this week (for launch in February), am President of my Rotary with 4 meetings this week alone (don’t ask) and hosted our employee Christmas party on Sunday (you should have seen Sandy and Sheila fight over that bottle of wine).  But we’re going to my parents’ house for Christmas, yippee! 

There are so many things to be said for someone else hosting Christmas, kind of like having your child’s birthday party at the local bowling alley.  You have to decorate very little, can leave the house dusty, put up fewer lights outside, struggle with the holly bush less often,  bake less and when it’s all over YOU get to LEAVE!  Ah, ha, ha (cue the evil laughter). 

And since my parents are so good with my family’s allergies, I know that we will only have to check things once.  My mom has it down pat and makes sure that all of the ingredients she buys she keeps the labels for so that I can have a quick go over.  Now all I have to do is bake some buns and muffins and we’re good to go. 

So my stockings are hung, my Christmas tree is glowing brightly and I have a twinkle in my eye.  Of course, I still have to do a bunch of shopping but that’s a blog post for another day.  I wish that you too can have an unGrinchy Christmas season.

Last November I told you about an Allergy Task Force that was put together with researchers around the globe including the widely renowned Stephen Taylor from the University of Nebraska’s Food Allergy Research and Resource Program (FARRP). The task force announced this November, after a meeting in Nice, that they would have information about the threshold amounts for peanut, milk and egg by the end of 2012.

To put it into perspective, we already have a threshold for gluten which is 20 ppm (parts per million). Anything under 20 ppm is considered safe by the leading scientists in gluten research, even when taking into account eating many products under 20 ppm during the day – the cumulative effect. Following this accepted level, the government can then create labeling laws that specify the threshold and food producers follow this in the labeling/marketing of their own products. While not yet law in the US, the guideline for producers is that less than 20 ppm of gluten (wheat, barley and rye) may be labeled as “gluten free”.

So what does that mean for food allergens? The task force has already been reviewing and conducting scientific research to determine at what level food allergens must be present to create an allergic reaction. If, say, it is determined that the threshold for peanut is 10 ppm, only food products less than 10 ppm could be labeled as peanut free.

It could also help determine the “may contain” statements. Perhaps on occasion, a product tests at over 10 ppm. A food manufacturer could then put a “may contain peanut” on the label. If a product consistently tested above 10 ppm, the “may contain” may no longer be appropriate because peanut is consistently in the product so it must be labeled “contains peanut” or peanut must be placed on the ingredient list. Levels could also be used to determine what “traces” are vs containing peanut or it may be determined that labeling for “traces” is no longer appropriate and a product either contains or may contain an allergen.

Another consideration is that with advances in scientific testing, we can now test down to parts per billion of peanut protein.  But if a product tests at 1 part per billion, it may be well below a threshold but cannot be labeled peanut free.  This is sometimes why your favorite product that was safe at the grocery store last week now has a may contain label on it and you no longer trust as safe for your family.  Just because we can test for something, doesn’t mean that it is useful. 

Australians are going through this problem right now because their gluten free labeling law is not at 20 ppm but rather at the lowest level currently scientifically testable.  So products testing at 3 ppm for gluten can no longer have gluten free labeling and Celiacs are losing their ability to know what is actually safe under 20 ppm vs not allowed to be labelled.  Their Celiac Association has called for a change to the law because this has become a serious issue for their members and their quality of life.

Altogether, I feel that thresholds are a good thing. For the consumer, they won’t have to guess anymore as to what labeling means nor should they have to phone producers to double check a confusing label.  It may also mean that we have fewer consumers playing “Russian Roulette” with their food because they guess that a food manufacturer puts on a “may contain” only to cover themselves legally, when, in fact, the food may very well contain that protein.

For governments, they then have a definitive threshold that can be placed into labeling laws and therefore have the authority to recall products that are unsafe and/or conduct legal investigations and actions for producers disregarding the law.

For food producers, it means that they can also stop guessing and create specific sanitation and testing protocols for their products and food production lines.  They can also label very specifically and if indeed they are putting blanket “may contains” on all of their products, they can stop doing that and allow more of their products to become available to allergic consumers.

If you’d like to know more details about the International Task Force, who’s on it and what they are trying to achieve, you can check out this page: http://www.ilsi.org/europe/pages/tf_foodallergy.aspx

How many times have you been traveling and either had safe bread products with you or found some safe bread products but you were afraid to put your safe product into the toaster? I’ve certainly been in that situation with my family and so I found a great little product that helps keep the toaster cross contamination out while allowing us to eat safely: Toast-It! Bags.

Originally created for containing grilled cheese sandwiches in a toaster, they are now well used and loved by many with special diets who want to use a toaster while visiting family or a breakfast buffet with their own safe bread product. You simply slip your own bread (or thinly sliced bagel, muffin, etc.), into the Toast-It! Bag and then pop it into the toaster. Gluten free breads may need a second run through but then you can just slide out your item and enjoy.

The website says that they also work in toaster ovens and on grills like the George Foreman Grill. I do know of someone who tried it successfully in a toaster oven but I’m not sure if that was on the toast or bake setting. I’m also not sure if they might work for something like a small individual pizza but it’s certainly worth a try.

If you’re traveling for the holidays or travel a lot for work and need to take your own food with you like we do, this handy little product could be a life saver (literally) and you no longer have to take your toaster with you. They can even be washed at home, dried and reused several times. Take a look on their website at: http://www.toastitbags.com/

We can pick our friends but we can’t pick our families and when you’re dealing with food allergies and intolerances over the holidays, you might just want to hang out with your friends. What is it about food allergies that can cause so many family feuds?

And why is it that all holidays between Halloween and Easter are excessively celebrated with food? From US Thanksgiving on Thursday through to Christmas especially, every get together is frought with minefields that we must safely navigate. These holidays can be the most stressful of all, especially if you gather with family who just don’t understand the severity of your needs. Is it any wonder that some of us just want to hibernate?

I’m the first to say that I’ve been really lucky in that I have great family on both sides who take our family’s food allergies very seriously when we’re visiting. Everybody always goes out of their way to make sure that the food is safe and that we have lots of choice. It’s what has allowed us to sanely navigate our way through many a pot luck family reunion. Even if extended family is not on board, we’ve always been able to enjoy ourselves with what’s available to us from our closest family, away from the main food serving area.

But I’ve heard horror stories ranging from the grandma who leaves the bowl of peanuts out on the coffee table near an allergic toddler to the sister-in-law who gets offended when you can’t eat her wheat laden house specialty. Is it worth it to even go to a family member’s house if they just don’t get it? Will they ever get it? If so, what does it take? If not, is it easier said than done to write them off?