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What are some tips for allergen-free grocery shopping?
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Transcript
Bob Gravani: Hi my name is Bob Gravani and I am a professor of Food Science in Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. My area of interest is food safety and recently we have conducted a survey of severely food allergic consumers to find out how they manage their food allergies. Today we're going to talk about food preparation skills in cross contact and try to provide some information to you to help you do a better job of protecting yourself and your family against food allergens.
Host: What are some tips for allergen free grocery shopping?
Bob Gravani: Allergen free grocery shopping is somewhat difficult. Even though food labels have become increasingly more clear about what types of food allergens might be present in them, but working with people in the super market in various fresh prepared departments to alert them to specific food allergies is really the first step. The second step is becoming very active and avid label reader and trying to look at each food package and determine whether the specific offending protein might or might not be present in that specific product is very, very important in preventing allergic reactions from occurring.
How do I find allergens on the food label?
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Transcript
Host: How do I find allergens on the food label?
Bob Gravani: Looking for allergens on food labels is very, very easy. A person can pick up a product, look at the ingredient label and find very quickly the plain English labeling of specific food allergens that are in that product and that's very important to people who are searching for a specific food allergen that they need to avoid.
What is the food allergen labeling law?
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Transcript
Host: What is the Food Allergen Labeling Law?
Bob Gravani: Well, the Food Allergen Labeling Law is called the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, we call it FALCPA. It is really a law that went into effect January 1st, 2006 and it mandates plain English labeling of the "Big 8" food allergens on food products. Before that, companies provided that information but they may have said something like Sodium Caseinate or Albumin and obviously Sodium Caseinate is a dairy ingredient that might be an offending food for people with a dairy or milk allergy. Albumin is present in eggs and someone may not know that, so with the new labeling regulations, eggs and milk need to be clearly mentioned as well as the other six of the "Big 8" food allergens on food product labels.
If the statement on the label says, a food may contain an allergen or was manufactured on shared equipment with other allergen containing food, is it safe to eat?
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Transcript
Host: If the statement on the label says, a food may contain an allergen or was manufactured on shared equipment with other allergen containing food, is it safe to eat?
Bob Gravani: Well, because of this new Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act many companies have put these designations on their label to make sure that consumers know that even though they do a great job of allergy protection and prevention of cross contact, that there maybe a possibility that these foods contain an offending allergen, let's say tree nuts, for example in baked goods. So they want to make consumers aware that there is an increased risk and the consumer needs to then look at this label and make a conscious decision about whether they want to consume that product or not.
What is cross contact?
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Transcript
Host: What is cross contact?
Bob Gravani: Well cross contact is a situation where a food processing plant might be involved in making a product that contains an allergen and one that does not and they have to be scrupulously aware of keeping those products separate. Let me give you a couple of examples, if a company makes an egg pasta versus a non-egg pasta, they have got to prevent cross contact from the food allergen to the non food allergen containing product. So they are going to scrupulously clean equipment and make sure that the allergens are kept segregated in their warehouse during the process and make these products at two separate times after extensive clean up of the equipment, etcetera. Other examples might be nuts in chocolate products or certainly nuts in baked goods. Often times we see issues related to undeclared allergens present in some products because of errors in manufacturing.
Should I use separate cooking utensils and cookware for allergy free dishes?
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Transcript
Host: Should I use separate cooking utensils and cookware for allergy free dishes?
Bob Gravani: Well for severely food allergic consumers segregating equipment is very very important. In people's homes, certainly they probably don't even want the offending food allergen present in their homes because just the presence might accidentally cause an allergic reaction to occur. So keeping everything separate and segregated is very important, but in a home situation, I would recommend that consumers not even have that particular offending food allergen present in their pantries or their kitchens just to avoid any problems with other family members inadvertently cross contacting equipment, utensils, counter space, etcetera.
Should I fry allergen and non allergen foods in the same cooking oil?
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Transcript
Host: Should I fry allergen and non allergen foods in the same cooking oil?
Bob Gravani: Well when it comes to cooking oil, if a product is — an allergen is cooked in the cooking oil and then a non allergen product is followed in it, there could be some carry over and there is a very specific example that occurred in the food service industry where a consumer came into a restaurant and ordered French Fries and went into an Anaphylactic shock and actually died. What happened was, the fish was fried in frying oil and then the French fries were fried in that same frying oil and there was carry over and because of this person severely allergic condition, it triggered Anaphylactic shock and caused a death. So clearly the bottom line is make sure that you have separate cooking oils for allergen type products and non allergen products and if it's in a household I would avoid even having that offending allergen present.
Dr. Robert Gravani is a Professor of Food Science in the Department of Food Science. He received a BS degree in Food Science from Rutgers University and his MS and PhD degrees in Food Science from Cornell University with minors in microbiology and food marketing/management. He was appointed to the food science faculty in 1978 and currently serves as the Department Extension Leader and Director of the National Good Agricultural Practices Program.
Dr. Gravani's primary responsibilities are in the area of food science/food safety extension and outreach where he maintains a very active program and conducts short courses, seminars, and workshops for food processors, food retailers, the foodservice industry, and government regulatory agencies. He is interested in the microbiological safety and quality of foods and consumer knowledge of these important issues.
Other Pages Related to Food Allergies
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