Mislabeled products potentially dangerous for those with food allergies
THIS ARTICLE by the Chicago Tribune is absolutely frightening!!
It talks about children that are reacting to foods that are mislabeled for allergens. Parents are taking it upon themselves to send the foods to independent labs to have them tested, and the allergens are found to be in the product. The scariest part is that the FDA and the manufacturers are turning a blind eye to this problem.
The article lists one of the biggest offenders as Wellshires farms Gluten free Dino bites and gluten free corn dogs (which I can't find on their site but have still seen on the shelves at Whole Foods and at our local natural foods store). Wellshire Farms are currently no longer manufacturing these, but they have not been recalled from store shelves.
The government and the manufacturer should really do more to ensure the safety of the consumer.
I have those Dino bites in my freezer (but they are on their way to the garbage as soon as I'm done typing).
This is just one more incidence that we can point to where the government has let the consumer down. It doesn't shock me one bit that the manufacturer would put lives at risk to make money. I'm paying for our government to protect us and once again they've left us for dead (quite literally in this case).
As a food allergy parent I try to make as much of my sons food from scratch as I can. But I am the mom of two small children and time does not always permit that. So the Dino Bites were supposed to be a safe convenience food that I could use in a time crunch.
The problem that I have from making things from scratch also, is that I don't own my own farm, butcher shop, gluten free flour mill, so I am at the mercy of all of those manufacturers and suppliers too.
Nothing is completely safe. We do the best that we can. All we ask for is that our food is as safe as it can be and for manufacturers to be honest as they can be. And that they are held accountable when they're not.
It talks about children that are reacting to foods that are mislabeled for allergens. Parents are taking it upon themselves to send the foods to independent labs to have them tested, and the allergens are found to be in the product. The scariest part is that the FDA and the manufacturers are turning a blind eye to this problem.
The article lists one of the biggest offenders as Wellshires farms Gluten free Dino bites and gluten free corn dogs (which I can't find on their site but have still seen on the shelves at Whole Foods and at our local natural foods store). Wellshire Farms are currently no longer manufacturing these, but they have not been recalled from store shelves.
The government and the manufacturer should really do more to ensure the safety of the consumer.
I have those Dino bites in my freezer (but they are on their way to the garbage as soon as I'm done typing).
This is just one more incidence that we can point to where the government has let the consumer down. It doesn't shock me one bit that the manufacturer would put lives at risk to make money. I'm paying for our government to protect us and once again they've left us for dead (quite literally in this case).
As a food allergy parent I try to make as much of my sons food from scratch as I can. But I am the mom of two small children and time does not always permit that. So the Dino Bites were supposed to be a safe convenience food that I could use in a time crunch.
The problem that I have from making things from scratch also, is that I don't own my own farm, butcher shop, gluten free flour mill, so I am at the mercy of all of those manufacturers and suppliers too.
Nothing is completely safe. We do the best that we can. All we ask for is that our food is as safe as it can be and for manufacturers to be honest as they can be. And that they are held accountable when they're not.
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Comment by Ellen S on November 23, 2008 at 3:51pm -
Janeen, these kinds of mis-labeling practices nearly cost my son his life on more than one occasion.
We had no choice. Cook from scratch or be at a real risk of losing him. This was years ago. We didn't have many of the convenience foods there are now. I know I've mentioned this before, but our rule is/was: If my great grandma from the farm wouldn't recognize what it was in the store, or know what to do with it, we didn't buy it. If I didn't know every single ingredient, it wasn't used. It was terribly difficult, however, when you have no choice, you have no choice. You do eventually learn to adapt and it gets so much easier. Convenience was killing my child, plain and simple. When the kids have never had the convenience stuff, they don't know they are missing anything. Now that I have to be so careful with Migraine triggers in our diet, all that experience has come in handy. We don't garden or own a butcher shop, flour mill etc. We just know where to go to get what we need, and after careful conversations with our suppliers we know who to trust for basic single ingredients. We buy in bulk, cook in bulk and freeze a lot for our quick convenience items. That's the best we can do. That and pray...
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Comment by Janeen on November 24, 2008 at 2:50pm -
I agree Ellen. And the Dino bites in question actually had very few ingredients, are from a supplier I've spoken with on numerous occasions and are labeled as "Gluten Free, Dairy Free". My son hated these and wouldn't even touch them, so we were lucky that he didn't eat them. I usually make my own "chicken nuggets" but kept these for a "just in case". Now when I do make my own I use organic chicken (does not fall under the labeling act - I've spoken with the supplier, they've assured me it's safe, and I guess all I can do is trust), Canola Oil (again, different oils, have different levels of cross contamination. I've spoken with the supplier and again go on trust here) and a blend of rice, arrowroot, and potato flours (Bob's Redmill - spoken and e-mailed them and again must go on trust). NOTHING is completely safe. So I rely on labels and the supplier to be honest with me. I'm always looking at recalled food alerts to be sure that it isn't something that we have in our home.
I do not expect things like cakes, cookies, and general shelf items to be safe. But if I call someone to make sure that a product is safe (and safe from cross contamination) and it is labeled as such, then it darn well better be or a recall should be issued. My raw ingredients in everything I make have to come from some where. I need some level of trust from SOMEONE that even the fruits and vegetables that we use are what they are supposed to be. Don't even get me started on genetically modified... :)
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Comment by Ellen S on November 24, 2008 at 3:21pm
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I love Bob's Red Mill. I think we talked about them once before. Great guy my mom met years ago. He spent the longest time with her so he could understand what was going on with my son. Then he gave us a book and some flour to try. I have never had issues with them in all that time. You're right tho, there does have to be some trust somewhere. Even if you raise your own cattle or pig, there is still trust that the mill didn't include antibiotics in the feed that you've purchased, and if you get it at the butcher, that the animal was withdrawn from antibiotics and wormer etc before butchering. With our own pasture, we still have to trust neighbors not to overspray herbicides so my animals eat it. The fertilizer must be 'just right' with nothing we don't want. Again, trust. We even ground our own flour for a time, but you have to be careful that the grain doesn't have pesticides or herbicides used around it, and that it is only the specific grain you purchased and intended, with nothing accidentally added. At least that's a little easier because you can see it. Still, so hard.
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Comment by Janeen on November 24, 2008 at 3:31pm
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I told my husband over the weekend that I would like to get a farm. He wasn't for it, but he wasn't actually against it either (lol). I swear I'd do it, if I had any experience with farming. At least I'd know the meat and veggies would be safe for him.
And yes, I LOVE Bob's Redmill too. And Enjoy Life Foods. But as of right now, those are about the only two I feel completely comfortable with.
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Comment by Jenniferb on November 30, 2008 at 9:42am -
I thought the Chicago Tribune articles were great. I was surprised--and doesn't this sound naive?--that the government did not follow through and test the foods initially. I keep telling people about how I found some poorly labeled slices of cake at the Whole Foods Market in Boston, and it took months to get the labels corrected, which is really disturbing since someone could have become ill or worse during that time. And that's just one label I spotted--the Tribune database was sizable! It is hard to trust anything.
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