Recently, Felice, a fellow Nut-Free Mom and co-founder of the earth-friendly lunch accessories site Litter Free Lunch (www.litterfreelunch.com), contacted me with a heads-up about Edy's brand ice cream. She has two sons with nut allergies and had been giving them Edy's ice cream based on the label that did not have any nut allergy warning. I have also served my child Edy's brand without a problem. The other day, however, Felice thought she'd visit Edy's web site to double-check their ingredients and e-mailed me with her findings. Turns out the web site has a nut allergy warning on each flavor--but not on the packaging in the store.
For example, when you click on the Edy's Slow Churned Vanilla Bean Ice Cream flavor, the site has an allergy warning about peanuts and tree nuts for this ice cream. Click here to see what I'm talking about. I looked at all of the flavors on the site and they all contained that warning. However, there is no allergy warning label on the labels of the actual product that you buy at the store.
Why? Felice sent them an e-mail asking just that. Edy's response was that they are not required to place this on their labels, due to the current FDA regulations that only state you need to list what is actually in the product. Luckily, the FDA has ingredients labels under new review. Obviously, we all need to stay on top of this! As my daughter said "Who is checking a web site when they're at the supermarket? They're only checking the labels." Out of the mouths of babes....
Edy's also stated that they have no dedicated nut-free lines for producing ice cream, but that they carefully clean and sterilize their equipment after using known allergens. Hmmm. Edy's is owned by Nestle (didn't know that till I saw the site) which sheds more light since we know that they have no safe chocolate or baking products for nut-allergic people.
That got Felice interested, so she graciously did some digging that will benefit us all. She contacted Haggen Dazs next and got a similar response to the one from Edy's--no nut-free lines, but careful cleaning and sterilizing of equipment.
I have to add that both of these ice cream manufacturers mentioned in their e-mails, using the exact same wording that they are "happy to answer questions since we live in an increasingly health-conscious society." I thought that was weird--we're talking life-threatening allergic reactions here, not whether or not the foods have too many calories or fat grams. Obviously, not all of these food companies are getting the point of our customer service calls.
Finally, Felice called Ben & Jerry's and they told her they are members of FAAN (who knew?) and that they also do not have dedicated lines, but they clean, sterilize, etc. the equipment after using known allergens and they take food allergies seriously. They also happened to mention that they have not had calls about allergic reactions.
My biggest beef is with Edy's since their allergen warnings should be on the actual labels and not only on their web site. Ghiradelli Chocolate had the same approach awhile back--labels did not reflect allergens but the web site did.
Which just goes to show that you really need to understand how food is manufactured and prepared. I'm not sure what I'm doing about ice cream--besides skipping the Edy's--at this point. Ice cream shops not an option for us, and I was happy that we could at least buy ice cream at the supermarket. Now it looks like that Cuisinart ice cream maker I have will be getting a workout.
Many parents of nut-allergic kids avoid commerical ice creams altogether. I admit I'm uncomfortable with lines that only get "cleaned" of allergens. It's hard to say what's right in this case. I know that in his book "Food Allergies for Dummies," Dr. Robert Wood addressed nut allergies and ice cream. He pointed out that the incidence of allergic reaction from commercial ice cream (that didn't contain an allergen as an ingredient) is low. It's a personal call for each of us to make.
If you want further information, please contact ice cream manufacturers directly. Feel free to share the responses you get!
Thanks to Felice for her dedication and research on this topic!
Friday, October 23, 2009
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8 comments:
yes, thank you both for this post. We are the few "weird" family that do not like ice cream ( I know, call us crazy) but if we do use it, we go for home made. Speaking of Ice cream, FAAN alert newsletter I received today was about a recall on wheat allergy- mispackaging tubs of Breyers ice creams.
Sometimes I wonder how we survive in this crazy world dealing with people!
we use turkey hill vanilla bean and chocolate. although they list the "allergins" separately, thw website is very unclear as to how they handle them.
would love to know of an easily accessible, yet safe ice cream to use! esp. since ice cream shoppes are out of the question.
my sister is comfortable getting her son (who is PA) the McDonalds soft serve vanilla ice cream. I also have given my daughter stop and shop fudgicles, safely.
We don't buy any commercial ice cream, but I do let my son have the McDonald's ice cream.
I thought that while Nestle didn't have safe chocolate chips that their baking chocolate was safe? I called them about it before and they said it was safe. There is no warnings that I am aware of. Just trying to get clarification.
I know that some of Nestle's baking chocolate, such as the ready-to-use chocolate in the bag, has nut allergy warnings. In fact, once the chips had the warning I decided not to use Nestle products for baking--a personal choice.
If you have information that conflicts with what I've posted here, it could be that the labels or other info has changed. Please always confirm with the company if you have questions.
here is the response i got from the turkeyhill ice cream site (not sure what to do now about commercial ice cream!):
Thank you for contacting Turkey Hill Dairy regarding our
allergen program. Our facility is not a nut-free environment.
However, our Quality Assurance Team makes every effort to
eliminate the possibility of allergen cross-contamination by the
way production is scheduled. Our allergen program includes the
FDA's top eight food allergens (peanuts, egg, dairy, soy, tree
nuts, wheat, shellfish and fish).
All allergen ingredients are marked "allergen" and stored
separately in our warehouses. During production, we begin the
day with a flavor, such as vanilla, which contains no extra
inclusions. As the day progresses, we switch to other flavors
that do contain inclusions, such as nuts and fruit. The
inclusions go through a section of our production process called
a feeder. This section is not attached to the line when we are
processing flavors such as vanilla and others that do not
contain any added inclusions.
By thoroughly cleansing the production lines between each
flavor, our sanitation policies and procedures are designed to
further eliminate the likelihood of allergen residue
contaminating another product.
The allergen(s) each product contains are listed on the package.
In addition, there are a few flavors which state "May Contain:
Almonds, Cashews, Pecans, Brazil Nuts, Hazelnuts, and Macadamia
Nuts". This statement is a requirement by our pretzel supplier,
Snyder's of Hanover, because their production facility contains
these types of nuts.
We hope this information is helpful and you will continue to
enjoy Turkey Hill products with confidence.
In appreciation of the time you took to contact us, we will be
sending you a follow-up letter and coupons. We appreciate your
comments and thank you for choosing Turkey Hill.
Sincerely
TURKEY HILL DAIRY
Bethany Herr
Consumer Relations Representative
I stumbled upon your site while on Twitter. I had a similar experience and went as far as opening an investigation with the FDA. This after finding similar problems (no label on product) but on the site I also noticed that it said the product (Vanilla) were kosher, nut free and gluten free but right below that it states it's processed on a machine that processes nuts. Begs the question as to why then do they call it nut free? We'll see how far I get!
Interesting comment regarding Haagen Daaz ... I actually called them this summer and they told me they had dedicated manufacturing lines - they even mailed me a list of flavors including or excluding nuts, so I would know at a glance what to purchase. I have not had a problem using their products, and my daughter has severe peanut/tree nut allergies. One other brand - Wegman's, which is located in the Northeast, labels their products and do have flavors that are nut free. They seem to be serious across the board with their products when it comes to allergens. Hope this information is helpful!
It would be great if HD ice cream had dedicated lines, but based on the info they sent you it sounds to me as though they are calling any ice cream that doesn't contain nuts or peanuts as part of its recipe "nut-free." I will have to do some digging with them -- I wonder what they'll tell me because the last I heard they did not have dedicated lines for nut-containing ice creams. Rather, they did the whole "cleaning, sanitizing" process mentioned by other ice cream companies.
It's a tough call since you don't hear much about allergic reactions due to store-bought ice cream--but without a dedicated line that is a possibility. I find the whole thing confusing and still wish that the labels were very explicit on ice creams.
Please keep your comments coming--they're helpful!
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