Thanksgiving Oops #1 to watch out for....

Imagine this greeting you at the table when you're allergic to tree nuts?

It's a super crafty idea from the folks at Pottery Barn, don't get me wrong (although I wonder what you're supposed to do with the nuts and place cards when you want a glass of wine?), but what a big oops! It greeted me this week when my PB catalog came in the mail. It's funny what you notice first when you are sensitive to these things, huh?

I don't mean to harp on PB, but it just goes to show that during the holidays you need to be prepared for anything.

Including leaves in your glass (I sure hope they cleaned those first).

That Peanut Butter Has What?

So I bet you never thought I would blog about Peanut Butter, did you? Well, I am - sort of.

Some of you know that I'm on twitter. I really don't tweet much about food allergy (but feel free to follow me!), but my FA (food allergy) friends are on there too and I keep up with them there. And I also keep up on trends like #foodallergy and #peanutallergy. And I also do a search every week or so on peanut and peanut allergy to see if there are any new peanut allergic families to follow.

OK, so enough about building the clock instead of telling you the time. In these searches, there are countless number of people who say things like "I just read the peanut butter jar and it says CONTAINS PEANUTS - duh!". Well, yeah, duh. But it isn't worth replying to these folks, explaining that it's not the obvious stuff FA families worry about, but the hidden stuff (peanut flour in cereal, etc) and that food labeling is invaluable in this regard.

And then last night at the grocery store I saw this peanut butter and looked at the label. Why you ask? Well, because I always look at labels! Oh, you mean why was I examining peanut butter? Well, my good friend's son just passed his peanut challenge (I know??! AWESOME!) and she mentioned looking for PB without tree nuts (since he's still allergic to tree nuts - but when you pass the challenge you are supposed to keep exposing your child to peanuts so they don't become allergic again).

So I'm standing there in the aisle, reading the label, and what do I see? This label:

Look! More allergens! Like Wheat and Egg! And they also produce a tree nut butter and there is a risk of soy cross contamination. That's 4 more of the top 8. Whew. Just for peanut butter!

I'm not knocking this product at all. There up front about their product which is great. And it looks like a fine product. In fact, if B wasn't PA, I would likely buy it. I LOVE wheat germ and who doesn't love honey and peanut butter?!?! But if you simply went with the thought that it's peanut butter, and why would it have anything else, you'd be wrong.

My point is that you never know what you'll find in a product, so keep reading those labels!

Imagine what those folks on twitter would say now?

Watch It This Week: Edible Enemies

Found on the peanutallergy.com boards. I'll definitely be watching this (an excuse to watch Food Network? nope, don't need one). I guess it aired yesterday but we missed it (damn that fresh air we went out to get!). Have any of you seen it?

Food Network Specials
Episode AXSP01

AIR TIME: October 19, 2007 10:00 AM ET/PT

Edible Enemies
Edible Enemies is a one-hour special report that looks at the mysterious increase in both the number and the severity of food allergies in the United States. 12 million Americans now have food allergies. There is no cure. There is no treatment, other than a shot of epinephrine in an emergency. We will hear from the parents of small children, and from teenagers and adults living with life-threatening food allergies