Baking for people with nut allergies
October 18, 2018 5:25 AM   Subscribe

It's getting to a festive time of year and I will be doing lots of baking in the colder months for friends and colleagues. How to approach baking when taking nut allergies into consideration?

If I don't bake with nuts, can I assure a nut-allergy sufferer my home-baking is safe for them to eat, or can nuts sneak into other baking ingredients? I don't eat nuts a lot but I don't have an allergy and cannot say with any confidence that my kitchen is 'nut-free'. I am already concerned about baking with chocolate because the packaging usually says 'may contain traces of nuts'. How do I approach this? Sorry if this question is very 'Food Allergy 101'. I really don't have a lot of experience with food sensitivities.

Bonus points for your favourite uncomplicated certified nut-free cake/muffin/traybake recipes :)
posted by Ziggy500 to Food & Drink (15 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Give your allergic friends non-food gifts.
posted by Carol Anne at 6:05 AM on October 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


Best answer: In my experience, people with mild allergies will take you at your word that a bake is nut free. People with severe reactions who can only eat from a guaranteed nut free processor generally don't risk it with home-baked goods even if you told them it was safe
posted by Think_Long at 6:11 AM on October 18, 2018 [5 favorites]


Best answer: "Can I assure a nut-allergy sufferer my home baking is safe for them to eat?"

Yes. Probably? IF you are prepared to ask that person, BEFORE you bake, what you would need to do to make them feel safe, and then do those things diligently, and-- this is important-- be ready to scrap the whole plan and start over if you forget and make a mistake! Like, if someone asks you to clean your oven first, and you forget, or if you meant to use the nut-free chocolate, but accidentally grabbed the brand with a warning, PLEASE, please, please, either start over (and literally eat your mistake, which, hey, won't be the worst consequence, right?), or let the person know what happened, and be prepared for them to say they cannot eat your gift. I know it's really disappointing when you work hard on a dish and it turns out that the person you intended to give it to can't eat it, but, please remember that this is a life-or-death issue for people with nut allergies, and try not to take any rejections personally.

Different people have different sensitivity levels to their allergen, and different tolerance for risk, and people with allergies are the best experts to ask on how they want you to handle their food. The most most most important thing is that you can do is talk to people, listen to what they say, and be honest about what think you can and cannot handle in your kitchen.

"Can nuts sneak into other baking ingredients?"

Yes. Absolutely. Allergen cross contact in food production facilities is a very common problem which is why you have seen so many warnings on chocolate. Also, be aware that "may contain" and "shared equipment" warnings aren't always required even when there is a risk of contamination (rules on those warnings on labels vary by country; in the U.S., where I live, they are entirely voluntary and unregulated). This is honestly one of the most frustrating things about managing nut allergies-- obvious nuts are easy to avoid, but accidental traces of nuts are not so much. And it's not always in things that make sense, like chocolate-- I've seen nut contamination warnings on crazy things like baking soda. Your friends with allergies can probably suggest safe ingredient brands to you, though! A local food allergy support group might also be able to point you in the right direction.

There ARE nut-free baking chocolates available, by the way. It can be easier sometimes to find nut-safe cocoa powder than nut-safe chocolate chips or baking squares, but, you can find nut-free versions of pretty much all chocolate things if you know what brands to shop for. All of the chocolate in my home is 100% nut-free, from nut-free facilities. (I would suggest some brands to you myself except that I live in the U.S. so your access to the ingredients I use may vary.)
posted by BlueJae at 6:12 AM on October 18, 2018 [4 favorites]


I just asked my coworker who has a mild nut allergy and she said, basically:

She always appreciates the thought in home baking/cooking (she likes to bake/cook herself), but unless she has been to the kitchen in question and has a good sense of the cleaning and cross-contamination avoidance practices there, she does not eat other people's home baked goods. This in practice (I've observed) means she basically doesn't eat any home baked goods at work.

"It's not that I don't think they're clean or anything, but when you don't have an allergy of this kind you just don't have to think that much or worry about it."
posted by andrewesque at 6:15 AM on October 18, 2018 [6 favorites]


Echoing the above mentions of people with severe allergies. I have a deathly but allergy to all nuts, and the WORST is when someone gets offended that you won’t eat their food “even if they’ve tried so hard!”

If you want, check with them before (but they might just be polite) — but really, non food gifts are best. And above all else, do not be offended. It’s not about you. It’s literally self-preservation.
posted by knownassociate at 6:18 AM on October 18, 2018 [4 favorites]


Do you have friends with nut allergies or is this more of "could possibly happen"? You'd have to talk to that person/group as it seems all nut allergy people do not take the same precautions

My kid has a peanut allergy only, and I don't trust many people to bake for him. And I prefer to check the ingredients. Its just too much of a risk. "May contain traces of nuts" isn't acceptable. Those traces can kill

In my understanding, all peanut allergy are serious. Peanut allergies are odd, in that, one exposure might be mild, but the next would be anaphylactic shock. And testing only proves that "will react" as opposed to how bad the reaction is. There is no safe exposure for peanuts. But in saying that, we are extremely careful, but know other peanut parents who happily take their kids for ice cream in a peanut contaminated store.
posted by Ftsqg at 6:19 AM on October 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Thanks so much guys, this is really helpful.

Do you have friends with nut allergies or is this more of "could possibly happen"?

No, none of my friends, but I do have colleagues with nut allergies - I don't think it's a peanut allergy, would have to check with them what nut it is in particular. These aren't meant to be individual gifts, but more along the lines of 'bringing cakes to a get together' or 'bringing muffins to work'. I just like to bake in the cold months.

Based on what I'm reading, I think what I might do is make something that doesn't have nuts in it, be transparent about the fact that I don't keep a nut-free kitchen, offer a list of ingredients, and let my colleagues decide whether or not to partake as I am sensing that different people approach these things differently.
posted by Ziggy500 at 6:27 AM on October 18, 2018 [5 favorites]


I once asked a friend whose son has a nut allergy if she would ever buy anything from a home bake sale labeled “nut-free.” She said “Absolutely!! I’d be so thrilled that person cared enough to disclose allergens, I would want to reward them by purchasing their stuff. I would never, ever give it to my son, though. The risk is way too high that there was cross-contamination, regardless of their good intentions.”

People with allergens will usually be very happy if you do some research, find some pre-made treats that are nut-free/safe, and provide those, rather than making them yourself. If someone has a deadly allergy, they will not say “I can’t believe everyone else got something home-baked but we didn’t.” They will be happy you 1) thought of them and 2) can eat the treat without worrying about the home-baker’s kitchen practices.
posted by greermahoney at 6:28 AM on October 18, 2018 [6 favorites]


Best answer: I have a friend with a severe nut allergy and I would not make them anything where any of the ingredients had a "traces of nuts" or "made in a factory with nut products" type label. If cooking for them so they can have dinner at my house, I make sure to wash every utensil I'm going to use extra-carefully, in case it's been used with peanut butter or something in the past. I might run a recipe by them ahead of time to check whether it has any red flags that I might not be aware of. Basically - this is not something to take any chances with.

I generally would not do homemade food for them as a gift, much as I love to bake and to give baked goods as gifts, because I do not want to stress them out or put them in an awkward position. I would be much more inclined to try to find out what sort of special store-bought treats they like but rarely get, and make them a cute gift basket of those things, or to give a gift card so my friend can have fun picking them out, or to do non-food treats altogether.

If I were going to go ahead with a baked good gift, I think I would include a notecard listing all of the ingredients and the brand of those ingredients, so my friend could go off and do research if they wanted to, to verify that particular company makes guaranteed nut-free whatevers.
posted by Stacey at 6:28 AM on October 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I'm an adult who frequently has to make choices for a child with a nut allergy.

Mostly, I appreciate precision. If you can tell me, "I checked the ingredients of everything I added, and some said 'May Contain Traces of Nuts' but none of them had nuts as an actual ingredient. I do sometimes have nuts in my kitchen," then I can make an informed choice. Whereas if you say "I can't remember if I checked but I doubt any of this stuff has nuts," then I have to default to the position of not giving your stuff to my nut allergy sufferer.

If you want to be ultra-super-helpful, you could save the labels from your ingredients (or photograph them on your phone) so that anybody who is concerned can check for themselves.

Another above-and-beyond thing you could do: if you know there is an allergy sufferer in your group, you could ask them if there are any pre-packaged goods they're comfortable eating, and then you could bring those in (still sealed) along with whatever you've baked, just so they don't feel left out.

By the way, I really appreciate it when people do any of the above, but I don't expect it. Worst case scenario, I won't give the kid the food in question, and I'll make it up to them later with something I know to be safe.

The only thing I mind is when people (a) give food to the kid directly, without checking with me about a potentially deadly allergy, or (b) pressure me in any way.
posted by yankeefog at 6:28 AM on October 18, 2018 [4 favorites]


Bake anything that will be labeled "nut-free" on a different day. Clean all tools diligently, as you would, of course. Use a totally different packaging, so it's easy for you and others to tell what has nuts. The "Prepared in a kitchen where nuts have been used." text is useful. I know people with severe nut allergies; they avoid home-baked goods because people can be lax.

As a person with dairy issues, I love when food has the ingredients listed, maybe a card on the plate.

When you make food with nuts, put a nut on top of each cookie to make it obvious that There Are Nuts.
posted by theora55 at 6:38 AM on October 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


Thank you for being cautious about this. I have a child with a nut allergy and we appreciate when people go the extra mile to be careful. He's grown up to not really like much in the way of baked goods, just because he knows he always has to be cautious.

I think if you said "I cleaned all my utensils and equipment before baking and I used only nut-free products" I would be comfortable.

If you want to bake with chocolate, Vermont Nut Free sells baking products. They're good people.
posted by bondcliff at 6:51 AM on October 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


Based on what I'm reading, I think what I might do is make something that doesn't have nuts in it, be transparent about the fact that I don't keep a nut-free kitchen, offer a list of ingredients, and let my colleagues decide whether or not to partake as I am sensing that different people approach these things differently.

I think this is the right move; I made something outside my normal baking practice (vegan cookies) recently for a group of people with various types of allergies including soy and nuts. I put the cookies out on a table to serve with a note listing the ingredients and saying basically "I have done my best to keep these nut and soy free but I cannot guarantee that trace amounts of allergens are not present" and I highlighted the part that's in bold. That also makes it clear that you won't be offended if someone doesn't eat them because you're signaling that you understand that people's needs around this vary.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 7:09 AM on October 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


Since you asked for recipes, I'll share my orange cranberry muffins, with a related story.

I was making them for a small group with one friend with a nut allergy (though obviously not a very severe one - cross-contamination is not an issue for her). The recipe calls for nuts, and I decided to substitute chocolate chips. Turns out they are amazing with chocolate chips, and now I never make them any other way, even though I love nuts in baked goods.
posted by FencingGal at 7:41 AM on October 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


I have a severe nut and peanut allergy, and never leave my house without multiple epipens because of it--but in my opinion, those "may contain traces of peanuts" labels are slapped on everything as an ass-covering measure, and have no relationship to the likelyhood that the ingredients are, in fact, contaminated. I'll eat things made in factors with nuts and other allergens; I try to avoid ones made on the same equipment.

If you put things out with a list of ingredients and possibly a note that while you don't keep a nut-free kitchen, you baked these on a day when nut products weren't used, I would be really excited to eat them, even with the risk of cross contamination. It's rare that people have made treats that are safe for me, so when they've clearly made an effort, I'm often willing to take a chance. It really does vary a lot by person.
posted by mishafletch at 8:12 AM on October 18, 2018 [3 favorites]


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