Peanut Allergy: A Cross-Contamination Story

Cross contamination can happen when you least expect it.

Here's a short story that taught me that preventing cross contamination isn't always easy.

I was baking pumpkin sheet cakes for little B's class party.  It's a great little recipe that I'll post soon (promise - it will be my content for tomorrow!).

So I'm making the cakes and I'm trying to get it over with first thing in the morning, so of course I'm rushing through it.  And I'm feeling hungry, so I go to have my morning toast.

So I'm eating and baking, baking and eating.

And the cake's are in the oven, filling the house with the most gorgeous scent.

And I look down on my plate and realize that I was eating almond butter while I was baking.

CRAP!

One of B's classmates is peanut allergic but avoids ALL nuts.  And here I was prancing around, making cake while eating almond butter.

After shrieking (seriously - I did!), I took all the previous dishes and put them to the side. Then I washed my hands with really hot, soapy water.  Then I wiped the counter down with bleach and hot water.  Then I got new utensils and baking dishes, gave them another wash in hot soapy water for good measure and started again. 

And now I have two safe cakes cooling on my counter ready for a safe celebration tomorrow.

Avoiding Cross Contamination

Say you have a child who's allergic to peanuts. You decide to eliminate them from your household, do a top to bottom cleaning, and you're done. Right? Well, pretty much, sure.

But what if you have a child who is allergic to 10 things? Things you can't give up for any number of reasons. How do you avoid cross contamination then? How do you make eggs for your oldest child without killing your youngest?

Maybe you have separate pans and utensils you use to cook the allergenic foods? Or separate knives and chopping boards for each food? And you likely isolate the allergens in a cabinet or part of the fridge that your child can't reach (or knows not to). But beyond that, what can you do?

Here are links to some sites I found online that offer some good tips to avoid cross contamination when it comes to allergens:

• CIA - Professional Chef Site focusing on food allergies
• About.com - Food Allergy section of About.com.
• Nut Free Mom Blog

For those of my readers who deal with multiple allergies, how do you avoid cross contamination?