Wow. Hat’s off to Van’s Foods! Now here is an impressive food allergen disclosure statement, one that I think is the new mother of all commitments to allergen control, bringing us all to new heights: “Peanuts and tree nuts, however, are not banned from the facilities and may be found in vending machines, employee lunches, etc.” Really? What the employees eat or touch in a food manufacturing faculty has never crossed my mind in the last 11 years.
I bow down to Van’s Foods, the newest lords of food allergen information sharing! Although, I do not find the vending machine or employee lunches a problem since they should be wearing gloves while working. At times, it can be extremely frustrating when I can’t get a quick or easy answer to my food allergen cross contact issues. The questions are always the same: are there any risks to product X coming in contact with peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, sesame and poppy seed? Are any of these items produced in the same facility, do you know what cross contact means? To be precise about where this hot tip came from, a friend contacted Van’s Foods recently in her diligent quest to confirm no cross contact issues existed with the products she wants to purchase.
Here is Van’s response to my friend …
Those practices include:
Van’s produces all sorts of frozen breakfast items, that include gluten/wheat free, dairy and egg free options! Van’s frozen waffles were one of the first foods that I found for my son that I could buy and keep on hand for those last minute food emergencies. He used to religously eat a gluten, dairy, egg and nut free waffle and thought he had gone to heaven. We discovered Van’s back in the early days of “what are we going to feed this guy?” and they were a little food miracle in our world. Over the years, I learned how to make waffles and pancakes and my son outgrew his egg allergy, so we moved away from buying their products…until now!
I just discovered that they offer an English muffin! Just last my asked what does an English muffin taste like? I also learned they are fellow Californians (but they are from Southern) and Van’s started out as a waffle restaurant in a beachside city. They even stay away from high fructose corn syrup!! YAY.
Do you have a food allergy company you just love that all of us need to check out? Please post it!
One of the hardest things I find about managing both life threatening food allergies and asthma is talking to others. I hate to be the one that might be perceived as demanding, pushing or for asking too much. What I now know, fourteen years later, is that honest, clear information presented with kindness works!..