Time to Clean out the Pantry
Your child has been diagnosed with a food allergy and the diagnosis has yet to sink in, but the product that caused all the excitement in the first place is still in your home. Slowly, the realization arrives, cross contamination. Was the peanut butter knife in the jelly? Was the measuring cup used for peanut butter chips then inserted in my flour/sugar? The same with the butter or even the flour to the sugar. Is there calcium in my applesauce, soy in my vitamins? No matter what allergy we are talking about, cross contamination occurred somewhere in your kitchen!
Sugar and flour are relatively cheap, start over. Buy a new bag. Buy a new jelly, preferably squeeze jelly because it cancels any chance of it happening again. Clean all work surfaces & underneath the cutting board with hot soapy water. Maybe give those baking pans a run through the dishwasher. Look in the baking pantry, what do you see? Chocolate chips – read the label (all chocolate), bisquick – read the label, bags of nuts – throw them away, raisins – read the label (call the manufactuer), oats – read the label, brown sugar – start over, cake mix – read the label, pudding/jello mix – read the label, frosting – read the label very closely. Continue on to oils and vinegars, check for peanut oil & check any “exotic” oils/vinegars for cross manufacturing processes. You’d be surprised!
Refrigerated cookie mixes are cross contaminated with peanuts, but some of the breads are not. All bakery items are cross contaminated UNLESS they are pre-packaged and labeled as such. For example, white sandwich bread, whole grain sandwich bread, hot dog buns.
Several different flours exist for those with wheat allergies, such as rice, spelt…..
Moving beyond baking products, the snack cupboard has many obstacles. Pretzels seem harmless enough but almost all are cross contaminated with peanuts (start your search at Rold Gold or Wegmans Brand), chips- read the labels, cookies – lots of obstacles here, snack cakes – out, raisins/craisins – NEVER yogurt covered, crackers – read the labels..and to be on the safe side always call Pepperidge Farms before buying their different products. They choose not to label. However, goldfish crackers have been touted as peanut safe, all flavors BUT cinnamon. Those are cross contaminated. Kraft makes many snacks and they typically label or the 800# will say if a label doesn’t exist it means there are no allergens. Somewhat counterintuitive, but better than no rule at all.
For us, cleaning out the pantry meant sitting down with the list of “bad” ingredients my allergist gave me, and comparing it to every item in my pantry. There was wheat in the soy sauce, milk in the bread crumbs, egg in the baked goods…my head just spun at the ever-growing pile of items I suddenly had to keep my daughter away from. I made two such piles- one that was safe, one that was not. In the end I had four items I could keep, from a pantry full of food…my in-laws were thrilled at the influx of free food they received!