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FAIRFAX, Va. (March 24, 2008) – The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) will hold its 15th annual Food Allergy Conference in Baltimore, Md., on March 29, 2008. Many families struggle with how best to manage food allergies in their lives. Whether attendees have been living with food allergies for years or are dealing with a new diagnosis, this conference will help.

Conference attendees will learn tips and strategies for living better while managing food allergies. Topics will include causes and symptoms of food-allergic reactions, how food allergies should be diagnosed, strategies for avoiding reactions, how and when to use epinephrine, tips for managing food allergies in schools, ways to prepare a child to manage food allergies, and the latest news on food allergy research.

“There is no cure for food allergy today,” said Anne Muñoz-Furlong, FAAN Founder and CEO. “Until there is a cure, education is the key to avoiding a reaction. This unique conference brings together hundreds of individuals for a full day of the latest information on living with food allergies.”

Anyone who has a food allergy or takes care of someone with a food allergy will benefit from attending. In particular, parents, grandparents, and relatives of children with food allergies, as well as health professionals, registered dietitians, caregivers, child care providers, and school staff, will find the sessions informative.

The Baltimore conference will feature Robert A. Wood, M.D. He is a professor of pediatrics and international health and the director of pediatric allergy and immunology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as well as the author of Food Allergies For Dummies.

There are even special sessions for teens (ages 11 and up) and nurses at the conference. The teen lunch session will include discussion topics such as school, dating, traveling, and dining out. A concurrent session for parents of teens will enable them to share their experiences, challenges, and strategies for success. Clinical and school-based nurses will meet to discuss topics of professional interest such as schools, elimination diets, and food challenges with leading nurses in food allergy education and research.

During the conference, the winners of the 12th annual Mariel C. Furlong Awards for Making a Difference will be recognized. These awards were established by FAAN to acknowledge leaders in the food industry, health professions, and communities across the country who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to making a difference in the lives of people with food allergies. With the prevalence of food allergy on the rise, promoting public awareness and education is more important than ever.

FAAN’s conferences offer insight on the most recent research findings about food allergy as well as enhanced discussion and networking among medical leaders in the field, caregivers, teachers, child care providers, families, and school staff. The Baltimore conference will be held at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel, 300 S. Charles Street, Baltimore, Md.

ABOUT FAAN

Founded in 1991, the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) is the world leader in information about food allergy, a potentially fatal condition that afflicts approximately 12 million Americans, or one out of every 25. A nonprofit organization based in Fairfax, Va., FAAN has 30,000 members in the U.S., Canada, and 62 other countries. It is dedicated to increasing public awareness of food allergy and its consequences, to educating people about the condition, and to advancing research on behalf of all those affected by it. FAAN provides information and educational resources about food allergy to patients, their families, schools, health professionals, pharmaceutical companies, the food industry, and government officials. For
more information, please visit FAAN at www.foodallergy.org, www.faankids.org, and
www.faanteen.org.

Divvies

This company sells products that are peanut free, tree nut free, egg free & dairy free! Now, that’s impressive. We love families that reach out to make the lives of others better. Great job, Sandler family!

http://www.divvies.com/

I have new-found respect for Cadbury Chocolate. They have a wonderful tool for people with food allergies. Visit cadbury.com and click on “Kitchen and Lifestyle". A page entitled “Cadbury Product Nutrition Information” appears. It’s divided into two columns. The column on the right has a picture of common food allergens. Underneath it says:

To find products that suit your dietary needs, select your dietary requirements from the list below.
Read about Halal products
Read about Kosher products

Hold the CTRL key to select multiple requirements.

I tried this neat tool, by selecting “Nut Absent", “Peanut Absent” and “Soya Absent” and was pleasantly surprised by the results… 44 matching products! The search results turned up a lot of fruit snacks and surprisingly even Halls cough drops. But it also included a few chocolate products (Yay!).

I’ve got to tell ya, I actually enjoyed finding safe foods this way. It’s way better than the alternative - having to read the food label of every product in the candy aisle - YAWN!
Of course, I’ll still double check the food labels and check for product recalls, but at least this gives me a place to start.

Go Cadbury!

Ghirardelli has a page dedicated to providing allergy information on their products. Since so many of their products contain soy, milk, eggs or nuts/tree nuts, it’s just easier to give you the URL so you can check it out for yourself.

http://www.ghirardelli.com/about/faq_products_allergy.aspx

I just wish they had a page that listed their allergy safe chocolates. That would be much easier than crossing off all of the products that we (with food allergies) can’t eat!

With the mention of restaurants and how to handle food allergies, I thought it would be helpful to post a couple of resources for restaurants. These restaurant posters were created by FAAN (The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network).

This is a food allergy poster for restaurants.

Here is the same restaurant poster, but in Spanish.

This is FAAN’s food allergy and cross contact poster.

And here is that same poster in Spanish.

I like bringing my family to T-Bones, because the menu has a symbol to mark food choices that contain allergens like soy and peanuts. And I’ve found their staff really friendly and cooperative when giving them instructions about my child’s food allergies. Many restaurants wait staff are not very knowledgeable about food allergies. So, when you find properly trained staff, it’s very encouraging.

70 g brown rice flour
45 g tapioca flour
45 g potato flour
1¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp unflavoured vegetarian gelatine
30 g sugar
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp grated lemon peel
1 dessert apple, cooked with 1 tbsp water and mashed to a puree
1 large egg, beaten
4 tsp light olive oil or flavourless oil
6½ tbsp milk
¼ tsp vanilla extract
125 g fresh blueberries
6 paper muffin cases

Preheat oven: 400°F

1. Mix together the rice, tapioca and potato flours, gelatine, xanthan gum, baking powder, sugar, salt and lemon peel.

2. Mix the apple puree with the egg, oil, milk and vanilla. Mix this into the dry ingredients so that you get a lumpy batter.

3. Gently fold the blueberries into the mixture, then divide equally into the 6 muffin cases in a muffin tray. Bake for 25 minutes. Leave to cool on a baking tray.

Serve hot or cold. They will keep in an airtight tin for a couple of days.
Makes 6 muffins

An ARS recipe using rice flour for making bread has been newly adapted to home breadbaking machines. ARS scientists developed a recipe some 20 years ago for people with celiac disease, a wheat allergy. Now the researchers have revised the recipe to give the home baker a new choice among rice breads they can make with the countertop appliance. The machine automatically mixes, kneads and bakes the rice-flour dough, but must be assisted after the kneading cycle. The recipe calls for methyl cellulose, a food processing ingredient. Methyl cellulose traps bubbles given off by yeast, making the dough rise and giving the bread its light texture. The recipe also requires short- or medium-grain white or brown rice, sold at health food stores and Asian grocery markets. Home bakers can modify the flavor by substituting honey or brown sugar for table sugar, or by adding small amounts of spices, fruits or nuts. The recipe was developed by Maura Bean at the ARS Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif.

For copies of the recipe, write to Marcia Wood, USDA-ARS Information Staff, 800 Buchanan Street, Room 3014, Albany, CA.

Last modified: February 2007
January 1995
US Department of Agriculture

We went to Fire + Ice in Harvard Square recently.

This restaurant is a bit different than most. You grab a plate and load it with your choice of raw meats & veggies. You go to the sauce station to pour your choice of sauce into a separate bowl. Then you go to the cooking station where the restaurant’s chefs cook the food right in front of you.

You’d think that having your food cooked right next to someone else’s - with different sauces and ingredients - would prevent people with food allergies from eating here. But wait! They will take your food out back and cook it in a separate area just for people with food allergies.

The only nuts on the menu are in a couple of desserts - everything else is nut free.

This place is pricey - understandable for an all you can eat buffet filled with steak, shrimp, chicken and seafood. But it’s a wonderful treat.

If you’re not allergic to it (my peanut, tree nut, soy allergy kid dug into this one), try the “Best Chocolate Cake Ever.” It’s very rich and dense. Wow!

http://www.fire-ice.com/about/about.html

Bell & Evans Breaded-Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts are delicious! Even if you don’t have allergies, you’ll love them. They’re nut, peanut and soy free. Careful not to buy the chicken tenders, they have soy. They’re breaded, but not cooked. They come out so juicy.

I use them in pasta dishes, or in subs. Maybe I’ll try them with the Pepperidge Farm’s Frozen French Demi-Bagguettes and spaghetti sauce.

Here’s a tip passed on from my kid’s school nurse. Use your expired epi-pen on a piece of ripe fruit, like a grapefruit, so you’ll know from experience how to use it in real life. It’s also good training for anyone who takes care of your minor child. The pen trainers that come in the box don’t feel like the real thing.

Make sure you dispose of the fruit properly afterwards You don’t want anyone to eat it afterwards by mistake!

Make a list of all the off-the-shelf foods you can find that are safe for your particular food allergy. Don’t just “check it twice” - check it every time… against the most recent food allergy recall lists and for any changes to ingredients.

In any case, you at least have a list of easy to find items that you can share with people when they want to have you over.