How accurate are.....

[BitsnBearsMom]

the food labels in the US??

for instance.... if I buy an item that doesn't state a 'may contain' warning or list nuts then can I be pretty much guarenteed that there will be no nuts??

A little worried about feeding my 4.5yo ds that has severe tree nut allergies, peanut allergy (that is almost outgrown... reaction levels are dropping but we still need to avoid) and is lactose intolerant (outgrew the dairy allergy and was left with that... much easier to handle!!lol)

Does anyone know of a list of 'safe' brands??

 

[Cheshire Figment]

The content labels are required to be very accurate by law. The only exceptions for specific labeling ae sometimes you will see the word "spices" in the listing.

I have seen major manufactuers do a recall for mislabeling. I think a few years ago a major ice cream company had found they had gotten egg yolk into some of there ice cream mix and recalled several hundred thousand gallons, along wityh public notices of the error.

If you read the ingedients list on a can or box and something is not on that list, you can be very sure it is not in that package. However, some things have multiple names, and the company might want to use one of the lesser known names.

 

[dj2]

i'll just add one thing:

once i noticed that a particular brand of walnuts had some packages on the shelf (one size) listing BHT (I think) in corn oil, yet the other size did not list this preservative as an ingredient. I am not supposed to eat corn/corn products, so i called the company to ask why the labeling was different.

to make a very long story short, the supervisor i finally spoke with said that (for cost reasons) a company is allowed by the u.s. government to "use up existing labeling" when making certain types of ingredient changes. (can't remember exactly how she phrased it, something like "unimportant or trivial ones"). so even though the walnuts were indeed processed with corn oil, it was not listed on the label and they were in still in government compliance.

i'm guessing that things manufactured in a place where there are nuts/nut products, or with dairy would not be considered a trivial change to the ingredient list, but your post made me think of this incident and i thought people might be interested in what the walnut company said.

dj

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

So are there specific brands that I should be looking for down there?? For instance here we have Nestle candies that are nut free, most Chapmans ice cream and Christie cookies are nut free here...... suggestions??

I will still be label reading but anything to cut down the amount of time spent grocery shopping would be a big help.... I have to do the grocery stop when we get there and I (and the kids and dh)will be exausted from starting our day at 3am when the airport limo is picking us up from home.

 

[Talking Hands]

Honestly I've found that you have to read the labels anyway because they change recipes on things. For instance Campbell's broccoli soup did not have onions in it. Recently they added onions. Oops! My daughter can't have onions without an anaphylatic reaction. Don't take the risk. Read everything!

 

[Selket]

I always feel more comfortable buying the brands that list something like "this product contains milk, soy and wheat ingredients" then I think if it had peanut in it they would mention it. Many products seem to have coconut in them which is listed in the ingredients but not specifically warned about.

This bulletin board might help you: http://www.peanutallergy.com/bbpage.htm

Folks there discuss the differences between the USA and Canadian labeling sometimes - but I don't know the differences. I know some products safe in one country are made differently in the other.