Iphone App – GF Card

I stumbled upon this particular app and find its efficacy lies in  its very simple, straightforward interface. A brief statement which describes Celiac Disease is translated into over forty languages, including Arabic.

Celiac Disease Card – Arabic

Food Allergies in Beantown

I love Boston. Overall I’ve found Boston’s restaurants to be incredibly responsive to my food allergy needs, not least of which is Ming Tsai’s Blue Ginger. The restaurant is incredibly specific about ingredients and substitutions for dishes, and Ming Tsai even moves beyond his restaurant to advocate for safe practices throughout Mass.

Check out this engaging article on the subject.

Not only does the law require restaurant workers to get educated about food allergies, but it also posts a note in the menus asking patrons to inform their server of any allergies.

“My goal is to serve anyone with food allergies safely in any restaurant in the state,’’ said Tsai, winner of a prestigious James Beard Award and star of an eponymous PBS show. “I don’t buy that a restaurant’s too busy that they can’t figure out whether it’s safe to serve people. If you do not know what’s in your food at all times, you should get out of the restaurant industry.”

Can I just say that I have a ginormous crush on Ming Tsai?

Not a post about Michael C. Hall

As much as I wanted this NY Times article,  titled Cooking With Dexter: The Nut Case to be about Michael C. Hall’s hit show Dexter, I was also a bit wary – the premise of Hall’s show is as follows,

Dexter Morgan, Miami Metro Police Department blood spatter analyst, has a double life. When he’s not helping the Homicide division solve murders, he spends his time hunting and killing bad guys who slip through the justice system.

The idea of murder by nuts, not so appealing. Suffice to say that I breathed a slight sigh of relief when I scanned the article and found its reflections on parenting both heartwarming and bold. How difficult to admit one’s limitations as a parent, and though some great lessons learned for the rest of us. Namely: Never let your guard down for a second.

The author’s denouement, “no nuts only peanut flour?” certainly struck a chord, and reminded me of similar encounters:

There are no nuts in this except for sesame

There are no nuts in this except for soy nuts

Personally I’d rather have more knowledge about ingredients than less. How about the rest of you readers? Any success stories/cautionary tales of note around servers & ingredients?

Labels labels Labels

I’m an avid reader, and one of my favorite genres is ingredient labels. I’ve gotten pretty adept at doing a quick scan and assess. If there’s ever any question in my mind I generally avoid the product, but this particular one, a Sunday breakfast offering from my roommate stopped me fast in my tracks.

Our vendors follow good manufacturing practices to segregate ingredients to avoid cross contact with allergens. Made on equipment shared with eggs and peanuts. Facility processes tree nuts and fish.

If I trust their safe practices then this product, in spite of being processed on shared equipment, might be safe. On the other hand I’m very curious as to what their processes are; what equipment is actually shared and how is it cleaned?

This particular product is from Trader Joe’s and my experience with them has been somewhat inconsistent in the packaged goods department. Safe practices, and yet…shared equipment. Thoughts/comments? How would you all respond to this label?