Surprising Places to Find Allergens

Food allergy parents are always finding “surprises” in their food!!! Non-Food Allergy people don’t always realized what they are hiding in our food….. but what is in my shampoo???? Below are some examples of what we may find in our food and some everyday home products. Never a dull moment in the food allergy world!

Butter in prepared the veggies, and soup stock

Lactic acid in soup broth, which means it could be from milk sources

Peanut butter in Chili as a thickening agent

Soy and fish oil in vitamins

Fish oil in baby food for added DHA and RHA

Honey Nut Cheerios or O’s – almond extract

Milk enzymes in some soy yogurts and cheeses

Calcium (milk) added orange juice and applesauce

These important product tips, found below, are provided by a paper titled, “The Peanut/Nut Allergy Handout,” published by Dr. Antony Ham Pong of Ontario, Canada for AllergicLiving.com. 

• Walnuts in Fiber pills
• Walnuts in Sponges
• Tree Nuts (walnut, almond, shea, kuki, brazil, morikue) in body and suntan lotion, creams, soaps and other moisturizers, cosmetics and hair care products (Examples: Dragon Mist, Morikue, Aveda and Cetaphil)
• Bird seed mix, 
• Dog food/treats
• Animal food pellet such as that found at a petting farm
• Small animal food, for example hamster and gerbil
• Black walnut shell used in jewelry, industrial abrasive and blast cleaner, dental cleansers, soaps and cosmetics
• Peanuts in Cerumol eardrops, Accutane caps, Prometrium caps, Rocaltrol (Derma-Smoothe)
• Peanut butter flavored lip gloss (Bonnie Bell), Pears soap (peanut oil)
• Chinese Food/Thai/Szechwan – egg rolls, satay sauce, plum sauce, mooshu sauce
• Peanut scented fishing lure (Mann’s Vworm)

Some of the more obvious sources also provided by Dr. Ham Pong

• chocolate candies, cookies, donuts
• desserts, sweets, almond paste
• designer jelly beans, donuts, muesli
• ice cream, sundaes, cereal, milkshakes
• granola bars, rice squares, trail mixes
• pesto sauce
• homemade playdough
• mixed nuts, muesli, macaroons
• european chocolates
• salsa, barbecue sauce
• marinades
• vege burgers
• dried salad dressing
• Lean Cuisine meals
• bean bags
• specialty popcorn
• some european cow’s milk formula
• milk in the U.S. may sometimes have peanut oil or fish oil (to carry added vitamins). risk is probably low
• Rocky Mountain Ice Cream
• Roy Rogers Butterfinger Milkshake
• goober nuts/goober peas
• ground nuts/beer nuts
• Mendelona nuts/Nu-Nuts
• Arachide/cacahuete/cacahuate, mani
• Peanut/peanut butter/peanut meal
• Peanut soup/peanut punch/peanut drink
• peanut popcorn/peanut shells/peanut flour
• peanut sauce/satay sauce

And our addition….Eucerin cream!