Jul

15

6 Ways to Dealing with Cross Contamination of Food Allergens

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While you may have tried your best to be diligent in avoiding foods that cause allergic reactions, you may still get encounter cases of cross contamination. This usually happens during the food preparation process.  Your food comes into contact  with an allergen during the serving, cooking, or the baking process. Cross contamination is a common occurence in restaurants and manufacturing plants and even at home, regardless of how much care you put in.

Even the slightest cross contamination can affect some people with serious food allergies.  For instance, those suffering from peanut allergies can developm symptoms just with the smell of peanut butter even  without touching or tasting it.

While it may be difficult to, here are some tips on what can be done to prevent cross contamination:

1.  Learn to read food labels.  If you have food allergies, then this is a basic skill that you must acquire.  Some ingredients have multiple names.  You would need to know what they are commonly labelled as in food packagings.

2. When in doubt, always check with the manufacturer. To be absolutely sure, call the 800 customer service number.  My guess is that you will be able to find assistance as manufacturers would not want to be sued over any possible health hazards as a result of consuming their products. 

3.  Keep your kitchen free of any food allergens.  In this manner, you prevent cross contamination from happening at home.

4.  You can also designate certain areas of the kitchen for special types of food preparation. Also make one cutting board for one specific food item. Insist on hand-washing after touching food.

Do not use wood cutting boards as they are porous and can harbor the remaining essence of offending food items even after cleaning it. Use glass or plastic boards that are less likely to harbor germs of food particles.

5.  You also need to let others know abour your food allergies.  You do not want to develop symptoms, spread through a hug, handshake or kiss. You may not believe this but there have been news reports of people going into anaphylactic shock after a simple kiss from a friend who ate shrimp or even peanut butter crackers.

6.  You need to exercise extreme care when going to restaurants for meals. Many places are accomodating.  But you will need to let them know about your special needs in food preparation and serving.

Jul

13

Common Food Substitutions For Allergies

Filed Under Food Allergy | Leave a Comment

You may feel depressed when you first start realising that you have food allergies.  In many cases, the food that you develop reactions to happen to the same ones that you absolutely love.  However, do not despair just yet. There can be food substitutes that you can turn to. You would be surprised to find that they can taste just as good and without triggering possible allergic reactions in you.
Here are some common food substitutions you may want to consider to alleviate your food allergies:

1.  Cow’s milk – Many of us are allergic to cow’s milk.  However milk can be found in many dairy products such as coffee creamer, milk for cereal and drinking and even milk for cooking.  Several substitutions exist that can replace cow’s milk such as soy milk, goat’s milk, rice milk, almond milk and more.  You just need to ensure that the rest of the milk mentioned here can do the trick for you.  Many of subtitutions also have enough protein for cooking purposes. Of course, if you have multiple food allergies, some of these milk substitutes may do more harm than good.

2.  Eggs – It is hard to find a substitute for eggs.  However, as a substitute during the cooking or baking process, there are leavening mixtures which suitably replace the role of eggs. Do note however that for recipes which are made mostly from eggs like sauces and special puddings, these egg substitutes will not work.

3.  Flour – Wheat allergies are also very common.  However, many traditional recipes require flour made from a wheat product. Should you have a wheat allergy, then you need to look into other flour alternatives.  Of course, because of their different properties, one type of flour may work for cakes but not work for bread. In other words, you will need to experiment to know which flour is suitable for what cooking or baking process.   Corn, rice, potato, millet, quinoa and amaranth are just a few of several different types of food products that could be made into flour.

4.  Beer –  Beer is not a common food allergy trigger but what you need to be aware of is that many brands use gluten, corn or wheat ingredients in their brews.  Hence, find beer that are free of these ingredients.  Yes; they do exist.

5.  Pasta noodles – Many pastas are made of egg products. Hence, you will need to check with your grocery store or local whole food market for pasta alternatives to stay clear of food allergic reactions. There are pastas that are both gluten and wheat free. These options are made from bean paste, rice, corn and a variety of other grains. You will have to use your allergies to dictate the type of pasta that you can purchase.

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