The Chicago Tribune has a frightening, but unfortunately unsurprising, article about the prevalence of undisclosed food allergens in food, and the government’s complete lack of interest in the subject. Thanks, government! Even if your kids don’t have life-threatening food allergies — and I hope they don’t — you may be disgusted to know that many manufacturers simply have no idea what’s in their products, and that the lists of ingredients or claims on the label are little more than an educated guess.
I know there are companies out there that spend a lot of money and effort to avoid cross-contamination and get this right. The problem is that the companies that don’t make it very difficult to trust anyone.
The Unfocused Life 
I saw that. We are lucky enough to not have to worry about allergens. It must be very tough to find the right foods initially, especially since the labelling can’t be trusted.
That’s scary, although I agree, not surprising. We don’t have allergies in our house, but two of AJ’s close friends have severe allergies (one to peanuts and shellfish, the other to all nuts (including peanuts), egg whites, chocolate and dairy. After a lot of fretting over what to give these kids for a snack when they came over, the only thing I’ve come up with is fresh fruits and vegetables. Fortunately, that’s always my favorite snack to hand out.
Also, since I usually read your blog via my rss feed, I haven’t seen your submissions scorecard in a while. I notice there’s an acceptance over there. Care to elaborate?
Mike – it’s a pain. Luckily or unluckily, the number of foods the boy is willing to eat can be counted on my fingers. We have to be most careful with chocolate. Hershey bars are okay; almost every other manufacturer just runs regular chocolate on the same equipment as their peanut candies, so we buy most chocolate for him from Vermont Nut Free Chocolates (http://vermontnutfree.com). It’s good chocolate, and they have excellent holiday products (Halloween candy, chocolate Easter bunnies, etc.), but a little pricey. Thankfully, they have their own version of M&Ms, because the little does love M&Ms, and we can’t give them to him.
Harriet – why, that IS an acceptance! I will post separately about it anon.