Cross Contamination: What Does that Mean?
Cross contamination is risky business for anyone with food allergies. It's what makes eating out a frightening proposition for a kid with a nut allergy like my son. But for those who don't live a severe food allergy on a daily basis, it's an often misunderstood issue. I thought some firsthand experiences might clarify what cross contamination means.
On our recent Spring Break trip to Chicago, we stayed with dear friends of the family. My kids call them our Cousin-Friends, we are that close! They take our son's food allergy very seriously. They make special trips to the grocery store to stock up on organic soy milk. They rid their house of peanut and tree nut edibles for the duration of out stay. And on this occasion, as she prepared dinner for all the kids, my friend noticed a stray batch of cookies she had made with peanut butter in them. She very quickly disposed of them. Then proceeded to cut up mangoes especially for Tanner, who loooooves fresh mangoes.
Only after she cut them, she turned to me in horror, "I didn't wash my hands! I touched those cookies!" Oops!
"Yeah, that's cross-contamination" I confirmed. And we offered Tanner a cup of peaches instead.
On another occasion, I had to have lunch on the run and had a chicken salad sandwich in the car that contained pecans. I took a swig from the water bottle that I keep next to my seat. Later that day, I picked Tanner up from school and he begged me for some water. I almost tossed the bottle back to him without thinking. Fortunately, I remembered. Yes, that is cross-contamination too and I explained that to him. He was not happy with me and was not buying that water can have nuts in it. Unfortunately for him, it can!
On our recent Spring Break trip to Chicago, we stayed with dear friends of the family. My kids call them our Cousin-Friends, we are that close! They take our son's food allergy very seriously. They make special trips to the grocery store to stock up on organic soy milk. They rid their house of peanut and tree nut edibles for the duration of out stay. And on this occasion, as she prepared dinner for all the kids, my friend noticed a stray batch of cookies she had made with peanut butter in them. She very quickly disposed of them. Then proceeded to cut up mangoes especially for Tanner, who loooooves fresh mangoes.Only after she cut them, she turned to me in horror, "I didn't wash my hands! I touched those cookies!" Oops!
"Yeah, that's cross-contamination" I confirmed. And we offered Tanner a cup of peaches instead.
On another occasion, I had to have lunch on the run and had a chicken salad sandwich in the car that contained pecans. I took a swig from the water bottle that I keep next to my seat. Later that day, I picked Tanner up from school and he begged me for some water. I almost tossed the bottle back to him without thinking. Fortunately, I remembered. Yes, that is cross-contamination too and I explained that to him. He was not happy with me and was not buying that water can have nuts in it. Unfortunately for him, it can!
Labels: nut allergy
posted by Ria at 2:53 PM
4 Comments:
What a great friend! That mango sure looked yummy too...
It's so hard to educate folks on cross contamination. My inlaws, while we were visiting them in their home, proceeded to eat peanuts (ack - another story for another time!) and then put their hands in my daughter's snack bowl.
You've never seen a woman (me) run so fast to get those out of her reach. And of course they looked at me like I'm the bad guy :)
But, like you, I'm on it all the time for the safety of my daughter.
This is definitely an important and very misunderstood issue. Those who don't walk in our shoes might think we're crazy--I've been called "paranoid" more than once by people who really just don't want to listen to my explanation. So I think it's great that you wrote this post, because the more education and examples we can get out there, the better and safer our kids will be!
The risk of cross-contamination really frightens me. For example, I make all of our ice cream at home; I will not buy any at an ice cream shop unless someone opens a nut-free and peanut-free ice cream store. (maybe someday?) Another mom told me to "just make sure they rinse the scoop." Where I live, they rinse it by dipping it into a container of water sitting near the ice cream window. That is the same container that they dip into after scooping flavors with nuts and peanuts! Yipes! I think it is definitely difficult for people unfamiliar with food allergies to understand cross-contamination. You just learn to think of food differently with a food allergy because you have to.
HI! Watch out for those peaches!
I wanted to comment on the recent allergy attack a woman had who is allergic to tree nuts after eating a peach yogurt.
My stepdad is a botanist and mentioned to me that peaches have tree nuts inside - their pits! When they are processed there is a good chance particles of the pit will contaminate the fruit. I would caution anyone who has tree nut allergies to be careful about eating fruit like apricots and peaches! Please spread the word but also check this out yourself with your doctor.
Elisa
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