Talking Allergies

We love our Canadian companies that have peanut-free and nut-free facilities and wonder what companies are like that in the USA.

We get our crackers and cookies from Dare, our potato chips from Old Dutch and ice cream from Chapman's. We would love to have that peace of mind on our trip too!

While searching for this information I read this and need to check if it is still true: manufacturers in the United States are not required to list the presence of allergenic ingredients on their manufacturing lines. It sounds like Canada where they must list if an allergen is an ingredient but not cross-contamination.

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me: allergic to crustaceans plus environmental
teenager: allergic to hazelnuts, some other foods and environmental

Our family travels to Florida every year and in the past I have not found many products that were peanut/nut free. But this year I did, they have DARE products and they do have an ice cream product that was peanut/nut free...I can't remember the name of it...but we found it in the major grocery chains.
It appears they are starting to become more aware of cashing in on the Peanut/Nut free market!!

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Christine Corbett
Daughter 8 year old living with a peanut allergy.

Philly Swirl novelties are almost all peanut free. They now have one product with a may contain warning, but it is produced in a separate facility.

http://www.phillyswirl.com/products/products.cfm

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self: allergy to sesame seeds and peanuts
3 sons each with at least one of the following allergies: peniciilin, sulfa-based antibiotic, latex, insect bites/stings

That is great to hear that Dare is also in the US!

Thanks for mentioning the PhillySwirl --- they are in the states we are visiting . I will have my nieces check for sure and do some sampling before we arrive

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me: allergic to crustaceans plus environmental
teenager: allergic to hazelnuts, some other foods and environmental

We went to Maui in March and had trouble finding safe foods for my kids. I was expecting it because of last year's visit and had brought a whole suitcase full of crackers, cookies, chips, bread and other packaged 'high risk' foods.

I thought I might find DARE there, but didn't see a trace of it in 3 different large supermarkets. In a large Safeway, I read all the bread labels and didn't find a single one that was OK, out of probably 40 different types! A few brands had may contain warnings, but everything else just said 'contains wheat and soy', with no may contain warning at all. It was pretty frustrating.

I did find one brand of ice cream which was dairy free (made with coconut milk) and said 'made in a facility with peanut/tree nuts, etc', but then went on to say they had very strict cleaning and sanitizing procedures and batch tested all their product for traces of milk, nuts and peanuts. I was satisfied with this and let my kids eat it with no incident.

If possible, I would bring some things with me just to be safe. With bread, we bought it here just before we left, then froze it as soon as we got there so it lasted the 10 days we were there.

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DD 2004 Allergy to peanuts, egg, sesame, and new: lentils and chick peas
DS 2006 Allergy to peanuts, tree nuts, milk, egg, kiwi fruit, eczema

I bring my bread machine with me on vacation.

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self: allergy to sesame seeds and peanuts
3 sons each with at least one of the following allergies: peniciilin, sulfa-based antibiotic, latex, insect bites/stings

I made a lot of calls before our trip and the best one was to SaraLee --- they have a lot of product lines and they assured me that they label for everything. We found bagels, hot dog buns, sausage, cheesecake and more that was without peanuts or tree-nuts!

We took tortillas and bagels and a few others items with us --- we filled a carry-on suitcase with her food . It was reassuring to have it in case we did not easily find local items.

I agree that finding bread was difficult - never did find a regular loaf of bread that was safe! Are they all really exposed to the allergens or are they over-cautious??


Not all calls went well... One went like this --- it was a bagel shop which I thought could work as they often don't have nuts. I asked about peanuts or treenuts and was told that they "don't need to use them and that her cousin owns the company and it would be good." Just before I hung up she added "Oh, but we do have walnuts".

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me: allergic to crustaceans plus environmental
teenager: allergic to hazelnuts, some other foods and environmental