by Jason | Jun 11, 2010 | Blog
Today marks the one-month anniversary of peanutfreelife.com. Thank you to everyone that has visited the site, everyone kind enough to leave comments and to everyone who has subscribed. The support has been amazing.
We started the blog as a resource to help parents and friends find peanut and tree nut free foods. This past month we posted three Safe Food Lists: Cereals, Candy and Ice Cream Novelties. The number of downloads for these lists from our site inspire us to keep the lists coming. The next list we plan on posting is for Crackers, Chips and Cookies.
One thing I did not expect to find was the large network of food allergy parents on Twitter and Facebook. These communities are supportive, helpful and encouraging. To see for yourself, go to Twitter and search for tweets with the #foodallergy topic. Read through the tweets and click on some of the links included the tweets. I encourage you to follow these users on twitter, subscribe to their blog, and comment on their blog posts. You can even follow us (Twitter name: peanutfreelife) and check us out on Facebook (Facebook page: peanutfreelife).
What does the next month hold for peanutfreelife.com? The main priority is spending time with our kids during their summer break. On the website, we will certainly post more Safe Food Lists. We will also expand our post topics to include more product specific reviews and more posts dedicated to commentary on news stories related to peanut and tree allergies. We are very excited about month number two!
Again, thank you for your continued support!
by Jason | Jun 4, 2010 | Blog
The summer camp that our daughter is attending this year Camp Riverview for Girls called us to ask about ice cream novelties. Mayfield Dairy manufactures all of the ice cream novelty products that they purchase. So the camp called Cindy, my wife, to see if Mayfield Dairy products were peanut and tree nut free. It was great that they called and Cindy immediately jumped into research mode.
Mayfield is a regional dairy that produces milk and other dairy products for sale in most of the Southeastern United States. Unfortunately, their website is extremely lacking in information regarding product ingredients or allergens. In fact, they have no nutritional information on their website at all. This is an area where they certainly need to improve. The good news is that they were extremely helpful when Cindy called them.
Here is the slightly edited text of the email that Cindy sent to the Camp Director.
“Mayfield Push Pops are safe! I spent the last hour on the phone with the two plant quality assurance coordinators of the two plants where Mayfield’s novelty products are made. It gets a little tricky as in Birmingham they make some products that are safe. However, if they are low on inventory, they will have their Toledo plant (Frost Bites) produce some products and in some cases those are not made on a dedicated line. This is what I learned:
In the Birmingham plant the following products are made on a dedicated line where no peanut/nut is ever run:
Jr Bars -These are the one stick novelties as opposed to the two-stick novelties which they call a paddle bar. These Jr. Bars are as follows:
Brown Cow Jrs. – which is chocolate covered ice cream bars,
Fudge Bar Jrs.
Pop Stix Jrs. – Orange, Cherry and Grape, Sour Pop Jrs.
(NOTE – large two stick “paddle bars” in these same flavors are NOT safe)
Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches – NOT the Regular size
(NOTE that while the Birmingham plant makes a safe regular size ice cream sandwich, in the event they are low on inventory, the Toledo plant takes up the slack and they do not produce these on a dedicated line. So they cannot guarantee that it is made on a dedicated line.)
Any 3 oz. ice cream cup (not 6 oz.) — They make light (3% butterfat) in vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and orange sherbet. Also, safe are the No Sugar Added 3 oz cups.
In the Toledo plant, the following products are made on a dedicated line where no peanut/nut is ever run:
Regular sized Neopolitan Ice Cream Sandwiches are made on a dedicated line (he said the regular sized vanilla is made on a line with Moose Tracks – peanuts/nuts and a butter pecan)
Push Pops Orange Sherbet Pops.
Thanks for calling me.”
If you live in an area where Mayfield products are sold, I hope this will help. As always, please read the label of everything you buy every time you shop. The goal is provide you some additional food items to consider. I hope to update our Safe Food List – Ice Cream Novelties sometime this weekend to incorporate these items.
Do you have any ice cream or ice cream novelties that are peanut and tree nut safe that you enjoy?
by Jason | May 15, 2010 | Blog
Our newest list, Candy, is now posted on our Safe Food List Page. When we compiled this list for Camp Riverview for Girls. I was really surprised at the variety of options available and it is a great list to give to friends and family for Halloween candy ideas.
We posted a link on Twitter to the Tootsie Company’s allergy statement where they state all of their products are peanut, tree nut and gluten free. What a great thing to remember when buying candy and their products extend beyond Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops.
Remember this list is only a guide and that you must read the labels of everything you buy. Our hope is that the list gives you some additional options to consider. Did you find anything on the list that surprised you? Are there any we missed?
by Jason | May 12, 2010 | Blog
Late last night I posted our first of hopefully many safe food lists for people with peanut and tree nut allergies. The list can be found here http://www.peanutfreelife.com/safe-food-list.
The idea for this website really came about in the last week or so when my wife (Cindy) was in the middle of compiling a list of peanut and tree nut safe foods to give to a Summer Camp that we wanted to send our daughter to this summer. The camp director was open to the idea but understandably little overwhelmed at the thought. My wife and her friend, who also has a daughter with a peanut allergy, spent many hours creating a list of snacks, candy, ice cream, cereals that were peanut and tree nut free and that were not processed in a facility with peanuts and tree nuts. The list was derived from current online sources and hours spent in a grocery store reading labels.
Cindy and her friend then created two massive gift baskets filled with some of these items mainly candy and snacks along with a binder with the food lists and labels from some of these. My wife delivered the baskets to the camp director who just happened to be in town for a food distributor show and was planning the food for the camp this year. The director was astounded at the selection of foods available and the effort that my wife and friend put into it. The camp director was speechless. We are still in the process of helping create a peanut and tree nut free camp, but we are VERY encouraged by the attitude, willingness, and kindness of the camp director.
After my wife delivered the food, she said that she wanted to create a website that would share the information she had gathered. I agreed and here we are today less than a week after she stated her desire.
We will never charge for the lists on this website that we produce. We want to be a free resource for parents, friends, schools, camps or any other organization that is trying to find a peanut and tree nut safe food whether it is for a Birthday Party or a Summer Camp. We will try to offset some of our costs through affiliate links and Google ads.
Please let us know if you have any questions about any of the lists or if you question any item on the list. Please remember that labels change as do product recipes and ingredients. You must read the label on you own for everything you buy no matter how many times you have bought it. We want these lists to show you the number of options you may have to find peanut and tree nut safe foods and think it is a great starting point for your own due diligence. If you have any foods or categories of foods that you would like for us to create a list, please send an email, leave a comment, or tweet!
by Jason | May 11, 2010 | Blog
Check back with us often or better yet subscribe and get notified automatically!
Recent Comments