{"id":2575,"date":"2013-08-28T17:08:42","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T21:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2013-10-10T18:15:32","modified_gmt":"2013-10-10T22:15:32","slug":"cross-contamination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/food-allergy\/cross-contamination\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross-Contamination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-contamination is a serious issue for people with allergies.\u00a0 An allergen may not be intentionally added to your food, but it could get there by mistake.\u00a0 This article highlights the cross-contamination issue, what to watch for, and how to avoid it.<\/p>\n

Cross-contamination, as far as food allergies is concerned,\u00a0 is when the food you are allergic to accidentally and unintentionally gets added to your dish.\u00a0 Depending on how sensitive you are to a particular food, this can be a serious problem that you have to watch out for.<\/p>\n

If you have a gluten allergy, peanut allergy, shellfish allergy, or any other allergy to which you are sensitive and have a strong reaction to, then you have to watch out for cross-contamination.\u00a0 The more sensitive you are, the more you have to worry about it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I used to worry about cross-contamination for my gluten allergy much less than I do now.\u00a0 I found that the more I avoid gluten, the better I feel, so I now watch out for the tiniest amounts.\u00a0 On the other hand, small amounts won’t bring me down, they just make me feel a bit less than 100%.\u00a0 For others though, especially for those with an anaphylactic shock reaction, it is essential that you understand cross-contamination and allergies and how to avoid it.<\/p>\n

Cross-Contamination – How it Happens<\/h2>\n
Cross-contamination can happen in a number of ways.\u00a0 It can happen in the kitchen, for example crumbs on the counter<\/a>, or using the same spoon to stir gluten-containing and gluten-free foods.\u00a0 It can happen with food handling equipment at a packaging plant.\u00a0 It can even happen in the dishwasher.<\/p>\n
It is impossible to list every possible instance of cross-contamination, but here are some examples to get you thinking:<\/p>\n
\n
Gluten allergy: someone uses a knife to spread butter on their bread, then uses the same knife to get more butter, adding crumbs to the butter.<\/li>\n
Peanut allergy: a knife used for peanut butter goes into the dishwasher, and comes out with a speck of peanut butter on it.\u00a0 That speck is too much for some people.<\/li>\n
Shellfish allergy: a cutting board is used to cut shellfish, then used to cut vegetables destined for a fish-free dish.<\/li>\n
Gluten allergy: the equipment is used to fill bags of wheat flour, then the same equipment is used to fill bags of rice flour.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For more ideas specific to gluten allergy, see Gluten Free Diet and Cross-Contamination of Food.<\/p>\n
Avoiding Cross-Contamination<\/h2>\n
To avoid cross-contamination, you must be vigilant, and only buy from trusted sources.<\/p>\n
Watch out for how other people store, prepare and eat the foods you are allergic to, and make sure your food doesn’t come into contact with their methods.\u00a0 If you can, try to change their methods.\u00a0 My household is completely gluten-free, which is a big help for me, but when I go to the cottage, I have specially marked jam, butter etc. that no one else uses.<\/p>\n
It is worth the extra money to buy specially packaged and labeled foods that do not contain the foods you are allergic to, unless you don’t react much to small amounts.<\/p>\n
Explain your allergies and cross-contamination to everyone who shared or prepares your food.\u00a0 This is tedious but necessary to avoid getting sick.<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Do take care of yourself but don’t become paranoid.\u00a0 The extra stress will probably make you less effective and ruin your life.\u00a0\u00a0 If you have a life-threatening allergy, then yes, you have to be very careful, and banning peanut butter entirely from a school for example, may be what’s required to keep people, and especially children, safe.<\/p>\n
What are your experiences with cross-contamination and allergies?\u00a0 Share your questions, comments and advice, leave a comment below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cross-contamination is a serious issue for people with allergies.\u00a0 An allergen may not be intentionally added to your food, but it could get there by mistake.\u00a0 This article highlights the cross-contamination issue, what to watch for, and how to avoid it. Cross-contamination, as far as food allergies is concerned,\u00a0 is when the food you are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[10],"tags":[363,230,62,40],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2763,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions\/2763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-details.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}