Reading Product Labels(Food Allergies)
Reading Product Labels(Food Allergies)
My trips to the grocery store take me much longer than they used to. As the weeks and months pass and we settle on our favorite dairy/egg alternatives, it gets easier and much faster. For those of you that have to avoid the beloved dairy/egg products, you have to pay very close attention to product labels. And if you are like me, you make sure to double or triple read them, just in case. Right after we discovered my husband's food allergies, in a panic I researched and read like crazy to find alternatives and to see what he could still eat. I very quickly came upon my favorite food allergy book and site...TheFoodAllergyMama.com. Kelly Rudnicki is a mom of a lil boy with severe food allergies. So you can imagine the time and effort she has put in to ensure her son is safe. My husband Mark doesn't have the severity of allergies as he does, but still worth all the effort to make sure he feels his best on a day to day basis. She has continued to bake, transforming her delicious recipes into safe dairy/egg/nut free treats, making sure her son doesn't miss out on anything. I love that! My Mark is only allergic to pecan's, so I tend to use Almond Milk rather than soy or rice milk..as she uses. Anyways, all this to say...order her book! She sells it for $20 I believe, but a lil secret...I found it on Amazon for way cheaper...sorry Kelly ;). It would definitely be worth the 20 though! So back to reading food labels...here is a very helpful list of some food labeling that might be tricking you into thinking something might be allergy free for you. And she states, for food labeling info, she always consults the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) at www.foodallergy.org.
MILK
Artificial butter flavor
Butter(butter fat, butter oil, and buttermilk)
Casein
Caseinates(ammonium, calcium, magnesium, and potassium)(found in sausage, lunch meat, etc)
Cheese
Cottage cheese
Cream
Curds
Custard
Half-and-Half
High-protein flour
Hydrolysates(casein, milk protein, whey, and whey protein)
Lactalbumin and lactalbumin phosphate
Lactoglobulin
Lactose
Malted, condensed, evaporated, dry, whole, low-fat, nonfat, skimmed, and goat milk
Margarine(Fleischmann's Unsalted Margarine is dairy free-it contains only soy and Earth's Balance)
Milk derivative, milk protein, and milk solids
Nougat
Pudding
Rennet casein
Some flavorings, such as caramel, cream, coconut cream, and chocolate
Sour cream
Whey(delactosed, demineralized, and protein concentrate)
Yogurt
*You wouldn't believe how many products contain milk or casein. Mostly used as a milk protein to preserve foods. In most brands, such things like, lunch meat, sausage, chicken broth, bouillon, butter flavored cooking spray and shortening, margarine, breads, cereal, etc.. With that said, I have found dairy free alternatives for most these things. I will make a list of all our favorite brands for alternatives in another post. Did I mention...it's not cheap eating dairy free...if you are still trying enjoy most all foods you did before. Eek!
EGGS
Albumin
Egg lecithin
Egg substitutes
Egg white, egg yolk, dried egg, and powdered egg
Eggnot
Globulin
Livetin
Mayonnaise
Meringue
Ovalbumin
Ovomucin
Ovomucoid
Ovovitellin
*So I have to skip over recipes that call for egg yolks or egg whites, but if there is a baking recipe that includes egg..the whole egg...there is a powdered egg alternative or baking powder. In which I will go into more detail in my next informative post.
Source: adapted from, The Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book