Did you know that agricultural cross contamination is a common issue in North America? In fact, it is considered so commonplace that the US Food and Drug Administration doesn’t require agricultural products to list contamination with other crops, even if they are a top food allergen.

Case in point: we are bringing out raw, shelled, unsalted sunflower seeds tomorrow as part of our new Fab 5 Products. Sunflower seeds can be cross contaminated with soybeans, corn and wheat. While millers/producers of these agricultural products have cross contamination procedures in place to identify and eliminate unexpected seeds/grains, the reality is that crops are taken off the field with the same machinery and trucks and are often stored in bins that previously contained another crop.

This is the same reason why pure, uncontaminated oats are controlled from the field to machinery to storage to milling. Otherwise, cross contamination is a real potential along the way.

Our new sunflower seeds do have a “may contain: soy” warning on them but this is also because we package them on the same line as our chocolate chip/chocolate chunk pouches (soy lecithin) and Energy Explosion trail mix (soybeans). We test ALL ingredients that come into our facility for wheat and gluten before they’re released to the production floor so you know that our sunflower seeds have been checked for that allergen.

For corn, we do not test nor do we have an allergen warning as corn is not a top food allergen. However, we will be adding a note into our corn declaration on our allergen declaration page regarding the sunflower seeds.

We provide this information to you, not because our sunflower seeds are more cross-contaminated than others, simply that we let you know about this potential cross contamination in the interests of keeping you informed about your food choices. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our team.

It’s getting to be quite a frenzy around here today with our Fabulous 5 New Products Launch happening tomorrow. We’ve got a great deal on the new products so you can give them a try with your family.

The five products are:

Blueberry Maple Granola
Cranberry Apple Granola
Berry Delight Trail Mix (with sunflower seeds)
Fruit Explosion Trail Mix (with sunflower seeds)
Raw, shelled, unsalted sunflower seeds

Now, I had not yet posted here about the raw, shelled, unsalted sunflower seeds although it was posted on our Facebook page last week. If you have a peanut/nut allergy family like we do at our house, you know how difficult it is to find sunflower seeds that don’t have the peanut/nut traces warning on them. We got so many requests from customers for sunflower seeds that we decided that if we were going to bring them in for new trail mixes, we’d also offer them on their own. We also decided to leave the seeds raw and unsalted because it’s really easy to give them a quick toast with salt in the oven at home but many people also like to have the seeds raw for throwing on salads or into baking. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them either way. Be sure to check back tomorrow for more details on the launch!

By the way, wheat contamination can also be an issue with all agricultural products and I’ve addressed that in a separate blog today.

Another new item being launched next week is Fruit Explosion Trail Mix. Not only does this trail mix use the raw sunflower seeds that so many have requested, we also listened to requests for a trail mix without salt or chocolate. We’ve delivered with Fruit Explosion.

Simple and clean, this goodie is just raw sunflower seeds, diced dried apples and apple juice sweetened blueberries and cranberries. Throw it in lunches, backpacks, muffins, chocolate bark or your favorite plain cereal without adding additional sodium or refined sugar. Simply yummy!

Last Sunday, Rob and I had a booth at the BC Foodservice Show in Vancouver and it was quite the whirlwind of a day. We started serving up our new granolas, new trail mixes and our best-selling vanilla caramel granola and we just didn’t stop putting out samples to try as our booth had a continuous stream of people – including those who went around the show and came back for more.

Not only was it great to see so many people enjoying our products and taking samples of granola bars home for family, friends and colleagues, it was truly overwhelming to see so many people who needed special diets. We lost count of how many people came to our booth who personally had peanut/nut allergies, not to mention Celiac Disease or gluten intolerance. We do expect this response at consumer shows for food allergies but not at your average food industry show.

And for those who didn’t personally have food allergies/intolerances, very few needed any education about the need to offer specialty products to their clients. While some were not familiar with pure oats for a gluten free diet, all professionals who came to our booth had been receiving requests for meals and snacks that would meet the needs of various food allergies. We talked to deli owners, bakeries, ice cream producers, chefs, caterers, universities, schools and more.

What a difference from when we first started Nonuttin’ Foods and we had to explain why a peanut free granola bar was a necessity. While I still think we have a long way to go, it’s really nice to see that support groups, allergic people and allergic parents everywhere have begun to turn around a very slow moving industry. I look forward to the day when eating out with food allergies is a breeze.

Over the last couple of weeks I introduced you to 2 of our new products: Blueberry Maple Granola and Berry Delight Trail Mix. Now it’s time to introduce you to my new favorite, Cranberry Apple Granola.

I have to say, I’m not normally much of a fan of cranberry products. I could take them or leave them. Not so this little gem; I’ve been known to trample over employees to get to the test kitchen samples of our new Cranberry Apple Granola.

What makes this one so special? I think that it’s just a fantastic combination between the sweet softness of our diced apples with a bit of that cranberry tartness. We’ve added just a touch of green apple flavor which smells fabulous, especially just when you open the bag. I try not to go around with my head stuck in the bag though – not if I don’t want my employees to think I’ve gone over the edge (after they pick themselves up off the floor).

And of course, like all Nonuttin Natural Foods’ granolas, this granola is: peanut free, tree nut free, dairy free, egg free, sesame free, gluten free, sulphite free, wheat free, with a may contain soy label.

Whether you like your granola plain as a snack, with soymilk or your favorite yogurt/alternative, this granola is sure to become a staple in your house.

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.

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.

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/

This Nonuttin’ chocolate sale won’t be found anywhere but on Nonuttin’ social media: our enewsletter, our blog and our Facebook page. And it’s only on until December 15 at 9 pm PST.

For every 3 pouches of our 70% Dark Chocolate Chunks OR every 3 pouches of our Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips you’ll get 1 FREE.

Put in 4 of one product to the cart and 1 will automatically be updated to a free item. Put in 8; get 2 free, and so on. Products are not mix and match for the free item (i.e 2 pouches of chunks, 1 pouch of chips).

There is NO limit on how many free pouches you can get so now is the time to stock up for your baking. Our chocolate freezes beautifully in its sealed pouch too and can be frozen for up to 2 years (even though we bet you won’t be able to keep your hands off for that long).

Go Shopping Now: www.nonuttin.com/shop or www.nonuttin.ca