With an eye on the food allergy community as a unique group of consumers since 2008, we're on a quest to find and share ways to continue enjoying the good things in life.


15 December 2008

Watch Out for That Canola!

I gave myself a fright when I went grocery shopping on Monday. I took a photo of the scare with my phone camera to commemorate the incident. (see above)

I have been baking so much lately, I needed more canola oil. I try to buy organic because my understanding is that only organic canola is non-GMO. As I was placing the bottle of canola into my shopping cart, I thought I should check the label to do due diligence. What is it going to tell me, I thought, that the canola oil is made of organic canola oil? Good thing I looked! It said "Bottled in a facility that produces peanut oil". That was horrifying. I know there's that whole thing about some peanut oil being safe and whatnot, but with my son's peanut allergy, I would prefer not to have any peanut pieces, juices, oils, or dust in my house. Needless to say, I bought organic canola oil that did not bear that warning. Now I just need to call and verify that it too is not made in a facility that processes peanut oil. I almost missed that one! Almost! 

2 comments:

Jenny said...

NPR just did a segment on olive oil, too. Apparently, some olive oil producers add hazelnut oil or other nut oils to their products. True olive oil fans find this to damage the purity of the product (I agree) and then of course, the story mentioned nut allergies.

This was also covered in a New Yorker article last year.

Better labeling practices are now being put into place, but they are not in effect now. From my understanding of the story, (it should be on file in the Morning Edition section of the NPR website) it is mainly olive oil being produced overseas.

Vivian Mahoney said...

Oh no! This is getting overwhelming.