Reading food labels is one of the most important things I do
to protect Mac from accidentally consuming a product containing eggs or
nuts. After 7 years of this, I have my go
to products that I buy over and over. I
still glance at the label to make sure nothing has changed.
When we first discovered Mac’s allergies, I was always
second guessing myself and worried I was going to miss an ingredient and buy
the wrong thing. My confidence has grown
over the years and it really is pretty easy to check the labels.
This is a great skill for anyone to know, because you may
find yourself with a coworker, friend or a classmate of your child that has
food allergies. I always appreciate it
when parents of Mac’s classmates reach out to me to check if the birthday treat
they are sending to school is ok for Mac to have, too!
So first off, at this time there are 8 major food allergy categories that are required to be highlighted on food labels. If nothing is highlighted, I do generally scan through the full ingredient list, just in case. These are the 8 major allergens.
Eggs
Milk
Peanuts
Tree Nuts
Soy
Shellfish
Fish
Wheat
I’m going to divide the parts of the label into 3 categories. Labels may have 1, 2 or all of these categories present at the same time.
The first category is
the really important one! Noted in red
in the pictures, it’s the ‘Contains’ section.
This is where you will find a list of all of the Major Food Allergens
the product contains. So in my case, if
this section says ‘Eggs’, ‘Peanuts’ or ‘Tree Nuts’, then that product is not
safe for Mac to consume.
The second category, noted in yellow, is the ‘May Contain’
section. This area lists all of the
Major Food Allergens that the product might contain, but most likely doesn’t. In most cases it means the factory that
produces the product also produces a product containing an allergen, but the
allergen is not present in product in hand.
I think of it as an insurance policy for the company that makes the
product. In Mac’s case, these products
are safe for him to consume. That is not
the case for everyone so its best to check with the person (or parent of the
person) you are concerned about!
The third category will always be present. Noted in green you will see the Full
Ingredients List. This is a listing of
all ingredients in the product. If this
is all that is present, generally that means there are no allergy concerns. I do always skim this list if there is no ‘Contains’
or ‘May Contain’ sections present. Its
better to be safe than sorry!
Please note that this is not intended to be medical advice.
Go check out those food labels!
Talk to you soon,
Nicole
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