Food allergies can represent a significant challenge in one’s lifestyle from the foods they buy, to the restaurants they eat at. The other part of learning to manage allergies is learning to avoid the unexpected, hidden ingredients that can cause a person’s allergies to flare up. Hidden ingredients are everywhere, from the foods they eat to the personal care products they use and medications that they put in their body, and depending on the food substances they are allergic to this list can be extensive.

It is important to first understand all the terms that need to look for on labels, not all allergens are so obviously listed, for instance egg can be listed as albumin, albuminate, globulin, lecithin, livetin, and any words that start with ova or ovo.  Milk can be listed as whey, casein, lactose, lactate, and even the term non dairy or milk free can contain milk proteins. Learning the names of these hidden ingredients is an important part of avoiding allergens.

Identifying groups of products that will be problematic for a particular allergy is also important. Wheat is always in mainstream bakery products as we all know but it is also in everything from creamers, to soups and ice creams. Milk is hidden in candies, sauces, and meat products and eggs are in most prepared baking mixes, batters and baked goods and can be included in sauces, frostings, processed meats, dressings and pastas.

Nuts are particularly problematic because not only do they appear in many products such as baked goods, cereals, granola, and frozen desserts, but the danger for cross contamination is very high with nuts and most children are highly sensitive to the proteins in nuts leaving very little room for error. Ethnic foods are another hidden source for nuts since many recipes from China, Africa, Thailand and Vietnam are made with sauces that contain peanuts or other types of nuts.

Soy and Wheat both are common ingredients in most processed foods and it is nearly impossible to find a food that does not contain one or the other of these two ingredients. Soy is can be identified under many terms including tofu, miso, tempeh, soy sauce, tamari, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, vegetable oil and natural oil just to name a few. Wheat can be hidden in bear, hot dogs, ice cream, food thickeners and french-fries.

An education in reading food labels and what these terms mean is an important part of allergy management and helping the allergic person to thrive despite their allergies.