Store bought vs. Homemade

A neighbor loves to bake and will bring us homemade foods and goodies every now and then.  Today she brought us a small plate of chocolate chip cookies.  Of course my girls were thrilled about getting a surprise of cookies.  They looked so yummy.  Katrina remembered our warnings about not taking food from anyone, and asked our neighbor if the cookies were safe?  The neighbor said, “of course they are safe.  They are just chocolate chip cookies.”  I didn’t want her to think I was being ungrateful, but asked her what type of chocolate chips she used to make the cookies.  She said that she believed they were Nestle Tollhouse Morsels.  I explained that Katrina could not have them then, because the last time I checked Nestle Tollhouse Morsels had a warning about being made on the same equipment as peanuts.  She was really surprised, felt awful, went home, dug in the garbage, and found the bag with for the morsels.  She called me a few minutes later and said that yes, the bag does have a warning saying that they were made on the same equipment.  Then she began apologizing profusely.  She knows about Bean’s allergy, and felt awful that she did not check the ingredients.  I kept telling her to not worry about it.  It was an honest and completely normal mistake.  I don’t necessarily like to cook, but like to bake on occasion.  Luckily I have purchased morsels before, and have checked the bags to make sure which ones were safe for Katrina, otherwise I would have not thought about the morsels being safe or not either.  She said she never would have realized that something as simple as chocolate chips could contain peanuts.

I also recall hearing about a mom who made peanut butter cookies first, then rinsed the bowl and utensils and then made sugar cookies using the same bowl and utensils.  Due to the cross contamination, it caused the child who ate the sugar cookies to have a reaction.  There are so many “little” things that people who do not have food allergies just do not consider.

Although I love homemade things, store bought foods are so much easier and safer for children with food allergies.  It specifies it on the label if it does or does not contain the allergen, if it may contain the allergen, and if it was even processed on the same equipment or in the same facility as the allergen.  Problem solved.  No questions to ask and nothing to worry or wonder about.