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 »

Health Canada has said since 2007 that pure oats (no wheat, barley or rye contamination) are not only suitable for gluten free diets but recommended due to the B vitamins, fiber and iron they add to a gluten free diet.  Yet at the same time, Canadian labeling laws, last updated in the 1990’s don’t allow oats to be labeled or advertised as gluten free.  This is why you only see “gluten free” on our US site even though it’s the same product as Canada.

As part of the upcoming allergen labeling law changes, Health Canada has recognized that their recommendations and the labeling laws don’t match.  Two weeks ago they published a 20 page document about their intent to change the law regarding oats and are asking for feedback from Canadian consumers and the food industry.  For more information, check out the link at:  http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/media/advisories-avis/_2010/2010_75-eng.php

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).

One of the things I struggle with as both the mother of a food allergic child and as a manufacturer is changing ingredients in our products.  This could be removing products, bringing in new ingredients or changing a recipe.  Believe me, every choice is carefully reviewed, often put out to our customers for feedback and truly agonized over.  I walk in your shoes and know exactly how our family feels when a favorite gets put onto the unsafe list.

In April 2007 when we moved to pure oats so that we could respond to customer requests for a gluten free product, it was a Catch 22.  Moving to gluten free would allow so many more people to enjoy Nonuttin products.  Unfortunately, the only way to do that was to move to a gluten free crisp rice from a new supplier, just as that supplier decided to put sesame on the same line. 

Although we’ve always had the crisp rice tested by a lab for sesame before coming to the Nonuttin’ facility and the testing has always been negative, I felt that a sesame warning must still go on our granola labels (bars and clusters).  So we labelled and carefully outlined why we were doing so on our website.  All the while, I’ve been looking for a crisp rice that could meet all of our allergen requirements and remove the sesame without requiring a 10 000 lb custom order.

I’m happy to say that we’ve finally done it.  No more sesame warning!  Read more »

Did you miss me last week?  I flew to Chicago to attend a food allergens/gluten conference specific to food manufacturers. 

There were 41 companies represented with anywhere from 1 to 12 attendees per company.  The companies ranged in size from tiny, like Nonuttin’ Foods, to large, like Kraft.  Amongst those attendees, I met people who had different roles in the companies such as quality assurance manager for 39 facilities across the United States to Consumer Relations people, the ones who answer your questions when you phone in about food allergens. Read more »

Time today for a little rant.  What’s new?  The topic is demos.  You know, where ladies stand behind a table in your grocer’s aisle, complete with a hair net and gloves.  They offer little samples of various food products, coupons and more.  Many people love food demos and even go to Costco every Saturday to “lunch” on the samples.  Companies do food demos because if consumers try the product we may like it or simply feel guilty and agree to buy an item from that kindly lady behind the table.

99% of the time I avoid food demos, whether or not my allergic child is with me.  In fact, I really try not to make eye contact and have been known to avoid aisles completely if it means I can bypass a demo.  When I have stopped, I’m inevitably disappointed, if not downright ticked off.  Sometimes I can see right away that there are food allergens that we need to avoid in the product but other times I have heard allergen information from the presenter that’s not even close to the mark.  As an example, several years ago Nestle came out with a new Real Dairy product line of ice cream.  Of course, we Canadians know that Nestle has several peanut free chocolate bars on the market here so hope surged within me that I just might be able to get a delicious new ice cream that was safe for our whole family.   Read more »

I spoke to the  producer of a national talk show last week and part of that discussion was telling her all of the major national brands in Canada that have begun producing and labeling items as Peanut Free.  She asked me to send her a couple of those products along with Nonuttin’ samples so that she could see what kind of selection is available to Canadians but not to Americans.  So off to the grocery store I went.

Many items such as candies and chocolate bars were really easy with Halloween coming soon.  The store had huge displays of all of the peanut free items currently being offered and I had no problem finding all sorts of goodies.  I then headed to the cracker and cookie and fruit snacks aisles where I added several Dare products to my cache.

Along the way, I decided to try and get at least a few items that were both peanut free and dairy free because the producer’s child suffers from both of those allergies and I hoped to send a pleasant surprise their way.  That’s when the going really got tough.  I haven’t had to shop dairy free for several years since both of my girls outgrew their dairy allergies.  I discovered that it hasn’t gotten any easier and with all of the peanut free items that I could find I was only able to get 1 item that didn’t have dairy or traces of dairy in it.

While I’m thankful that my own children’s allergies no longer include dairy, it seems to me that the manufacturing world’s focus on peanut free has really given dairy the short shrift.  And it has somehow communicated to the world at large that only peanut allergies are life threatening and need monitoring.  For those of you with dairy allergies, I know I’m preaching to the choir but this grocery trip really opened my eyes up anew.

I’ve said for years that I believe the most difficult allergens to avoid are dairy, wheat and soy.  I find this holds true in my search for ingredients for Nonuttin’ products too.  And despite my desire to have Nonuttin’ products soy free as well, I have discovered that even if we were to remove soy from our own facility, so many of the ingredients we source have soy cross contamination issues that I wouldn’t be comfortable labeling our products as soy free.

I’m not sure what it will take to have other major allergens come to the forefront like peanut has but I think we’ve got a long way to go.

When I was younger, I had a friend with a shrimp allergy who seemed determined to overcome his food allergies by sheer willpower.  I’m sure you’ve heard of allergic people like this, perhaps you’re one of them.  These are the people who know they have a food allergy but  disregard food labels and maybe even actively try to prove they’re no longer allergic to the food they reacted to as a child.  In any case, my friend stopped his antics after purposefully ingesting shrimp on New Year’s Eve and ended up in the hospital.  This was around the time when everyone in our social group refused to eat with him any longer.  None of us wanted responsibility for his playing Food Allergy Roulette.

I’m sure many of you are thinking this young man was foolish and I don’t disagree with you.  But if you are thinking that he is rare, think again.  Governments everywhere around the world are reviewing food allergy statements on ingredient labels after alarming studies showing that many of the food allergic ignore those warning statements.  These are the manufacturer’s voluntary “may contains…” that we see on pretty much every food label, ours included.

A recent UK survey indicates that only around 50% of British parents that shop for their nut allergic child heed the precautionary ”may contain traces of nuts”  warnings on food labels. 20% of those same parents ignore the “may contain nuts” warning on food.  Yet studies conducted a few years ago indicated that roughly one third of chocolates labeled with the “may contain traces of nuts” statement actually contained measurable amounts of nut proteins.

It may be that the majority of foods labeled with precautionary warnings don’t have the protein in them but many do.  Or what seemed fine last time may not be fine this time.  Is it worth the chance?