Understanding food labels for people with allergies

The labels on foods are often purposely vague. Help for those with food allergies to understand some of what is on the label of the food they are considering buying. Food labellings is not always intended to be clear. This article will help those with food allergies understand what is on the label of the food they are considering buying.

For most of us, shopping is just a trip to the grocery store or market. For those with food allergies and sensitivities, this same trip to the store can be an overwhelming and scary undertaking. In this case, a little education can go along way, and those allergic to certain foods need to spend some time researching the various names under which their allergen is allowed to be included in prepared food products.

In general, if you have only one or two allergies - whether mild or severe - it is not all that difficult to avoid them. For example if you are extremely sensitive to shellfish, you are probably able to pick out which products contain that ingredient and stay well away. If, however, you have multiple allergies, especially if they are to the more prevalent food ingredients (like wheat, corn or dairy), you may find that it is next to impossible to continue to eat those things you enjoyed before your diagnosis.

Food manufacturers have made this even more difficult by convincing the FDA (or it’s equivalent in countries other than the US), that their recipes should be proprietary information. In allowing them this proprietaryship, the FDA has also allowed that some ingredients do not entirely need to be disclosed on the ingredients list, and so the allergic run a risk of ingesting hazardous products frequently. One or two incidents of undisclosed contamination quickly teach the food allergy sufferer not to trust labels and to find ways of knowing, reliably, exactly which food components make up a particular product.

To this end, many companies are now willing to answer questions about whether or not a certain food is contained in their product. For example, Imagine, the company which produces Rice Dream, revealed two years ago that Rice Dream contains trace amounts of barley malt from processing the rice syrup and that this dairy replacement many relied on, is not safe for either those with Celiac’s Sprue or those with gluten allergies.

Other companies, like Dannon, are happy to explain that the hydrolyzed plant protein listed on their yogurt ingredients is not derived from wheat. Other companies (like Western Family and Resers), are very concerned about not causing allergic reaction in their customers and will spend extensive time researching which products contain or have potential cross-contamination from allergens.

Unfortunately, there are still other companies whose staff will tell you(often rudely) that if you have concern about what might be in their product, simply don’t eat it, because they don’t have to tell you one way or another. These companies are generally becoming few and far between, as the number of food allergy sufferers increases. Allergy sufferers, or the food intolerant, now account for about 10 percent of the general population, and most of them are involved in on-line groups - which quickly share information about non-compliant companies.

For those who are dairy sensitive or allergic, there is the kosher or Jewish dietary markings on many food products. Some time spent studying these markings will be of great benefit to the one with dairy problems. Briefly, Jewish dietary law requires that dairy and meat not be served at the same meal, and to this end, many companies permit rabbis to investigate their plants to ensure compliance with those dietary laws. The most important marking for the dairy allergic is parve (or pareve), which indicates that the food is certified dairy free. Conversely, a letter D, either circled or uncircled, indicates the definite presence of dairy in the product. However, if the product simply states kosher, this only means that a rabbi has been allowed access to the plant. Check the ingredients carefully and further check the product against one of the several safe lists available for the dairy allergic. Lactose free does not mean dairy free, for example. And a lactose free product with the word kosher on it, means that this is a dairy product prepared to specification of Jewish law, not that the product is dairy free.

Another thing to be aware of, with regard to kosher markings, is that at Passover (a Jewish celebration which takes place close to the Christian celebration of Easter), there are also a wider variety of dairy free products available. In the US (and some places in Canada), Mother’s Margarine is available only for Passover, and is entirely dairy and soy free.

In response to the growing number of people suffering food allergies and various auto-immune intolerances like Celiac’s Sprue or Crohn’s Disease, many internet sites are now available with listings of “safe” foods. For example, The Canadian Celiac’s Society has a comprehensive list of food products available in Canada which are considered safe for the gluten intolerant; and some of the autism sites have extensive listings of US manufactured foods considered to be gluten and dairy free. A quick internet search from one of the various search engines will reveal prodigious information on this topic. Or, if you prefer, many of the free “lists” have groups available specific to your particular allergens, and you can find support from other people suffering with like conditions. (like the GFCFKids@ egroups.com run by parents of autistic and other children suffering from gluten and casein intolerance, and its spin-off group GFCFRecipes@egroups which offers hundreds of recipes which are both gluten and dairy free and often free of other allergens as well.)

Many grocery stores are now offering tours with a dietitian, who can answer questions with regard to special requirements and food labeling. Call ahead and speak with the dietitian, and he or she might be able to tailor the tour to the needs of a group of food allergy sufferers, rather than the general healthy food label reading which usually occurs.

At first, the need to be vigilant with food labels will be a hard lesson, but as time passes and the allergy sufferer becomes more and more knowledgeable about his disorder, reading labels will become second nature. It will be well worth the investment, and, in the end, your health will be better for it.