No, not lately. Why bother? If it took them four years of constant complaining, they certainly can't be very aware of the magnitude of the problem. I will never again purchase ANYTHING from Kraft or any of their subsidiaries. (And yes, I [b]do[/b] mean that. This includes Nabisco, Oscar Meyer, and Jello, among others. They still don't label things that pretty obviously ought to be labeled as "shared lines" or "may contain" in my opinion.
The last time I spoke with them (a year ago)I became so enraged over their CYA double-speak that I will NEVER give them another cent of my family's money. I was investigating an anaphylaxis incident (and told them so) and they STILL wouldn't release information about shared lines/facilities. Those good people at Kraft/RJR can go to H-E-double toothpicks. [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

That's unfortunate...the person I spoke to was very pleasant and helpful.
They do have a lot of products my daughter likes and to date we've never had a problem, so I've decided to continue to buy Kraft. They may not be calling out the allergens/may contains, etc., but according to the person I talked to if there's even a chance of cross contamination it would be in the ingredients list.

I also feel fine about giving my child Teddy Grahams and also Kraft mac and cheese.
Jaime

Just for your information (so that you know who you are dealing with when it comes to those nice people at Kraft)
[url="http://www.altria.com/about_altria/01_04_02_kraftfoodsnorthamerica.asp"]http://www.altria.com/about_altria/01_04_02_kraftfoodsnorthamerica.asp[/url]
[b]Yes, yes- those same nice folks from Planter's peanuts.[/b] The whole company isn't exactly all about their consumers, though, are they? After all, these are the same nice people who own Philip Morris, too.
(And no, I am not saying anything about anyone's comfort zone-I am just saying that you should know where your money is going. If you buy from Kraft, it is going to the organization that is also Planter's.)
[This message has been edited by Corvallis Mom (edited March 27, 2003).]

Do you really think that just because a company makes peanut products means they don

I think almost every company out there makes some type of nut products.
For example, Nestle Canada has the nut-free bars, but in a different factory they also make peanut chocolates (ie: peanut Turtles, etc).
The important thing is that the company makes an effort to ensure that they properly label their products so we will know what is safe for us to buy, and fortunately the majority of companies in Canada do this [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

Why would anyone here voluntarily give their money to the peanut board??? (at the risk of sounding like river [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/wink.gif[/img] )
Planter's spends a TON of lobbying/marketing money in the USA to prevent the very protections we would like. (pn free airlines, etc.) To think anything else is just naive. I am not saying that this company is "evil" or anything of the kind- but their interests are definitely NOT those of our community.
I don't boycott Nestle or a great number of other companies which produce foods I cannot consider using- this is about Kraft in particular and what I feel (personally) is their gross misrepresentation. Just as someone else posted, I never got any follow-up call and also never got any answers about whether or not a particular product was made in a facility or was sharing a production line. (and I had all the information they needed to check) They would not (no, not "could not"- "would not"- I asked specifically) tell me, even when I explained that I was investigating an anaphylaxis incident that resulted in hospital treatment. I called several times with the same exact results- it was company policy. I was basically told that they didn't need consumers like me if I wanted to know all that stuff. "Our ingredient labels are the best source of information..." blah blah blah. "We follow GMP... we do not feel that products without warnings have *much* risk of cross-contamination," so they don't feel it is appropriate to reveal details of manufacturing environments. (emphasis mine) I have NEVER had this experience with another company. Since when is it a trade secret to tell a parent on the phone whether or not they are running boxcars of unshelled peanuts through a cereal facility??
If you don't think my assessment is accurate, check the thread with the "standard questionnaire" and try it out on Kraft sometime. I would be willing to reconsider if someone runs through the whole thing with something like Oreos or Cheez-Its.
Quaker cerals once sounded pretty good to me too until I pressed them with some of the harder questions that appear on that form! And no, it isn't an impossibly high standard- try it out with General Mills.
This thread was about Kraft USA, yes? I am not posting in the other thread about a particular product which I have no experience with. I merely contributed some [b]information[/b] that was relevent to this thread. I'm sorry if my [b]information[/b] bothered anyone. (No- that's not true, is it? Maybe it [i]should[/i] bother us to help Planter's bottom line.)
Forgive my nastiness, but I thought people wanted information- and I thought that meant even information that wasn't what you wanted to know.
Editing to add info:
Kraft produces a slick consumer friendly magazine (that they were kind enough to send me after I mailed them with my complaints) which leads me to suspect that if anything, they have gotten more savvy about fielding our questions so that they give SOME of the right answers... in the December issue, there on the same page where a crab/shrimp dip was oh so helpfully tagged with a prominently boxed note reminding nice party hosts to label this food "since shellfish allergies can be serious,"(the emphatic implication was that most food allergies were nothing to worry about but that shellfish could be) were several recipes including nuts (and even peanuts). Also in this issue were recipes which included pn and PB as "hidden ingredients." Funny, don't you think, that they didn't see fit to mention the most deadly food allergy in the US while they were at it. They must not process shrimp themselves.
[This message has been edited by Corvallis Mom (edited March 28, 2003).]

Well, I can understand because I HAVE completely boycotted nestle us (except the purina-I can't afford science diet or iams). But we get way too many things from Kraft/Nabisco that we can't get from another company. I will only use things we have been using with no problem, and always check labels. Otherwise we would get no cheese (only generic is available here other than kraft and sargento, which I don't trust sargento after getting conflicting info about their snack packs), mac & cheese, graham crackers, ritz, miracle whip, etc etc etc. I wish I didn't have to fund the peanut board but I don't have the time, energy or know-how to make all these things from scratch.
Gale

gmom- I see you boycott Nestle USA...I thought they were safe and always label for cross contamination? I buy Nestle choc chips occasionally...should I stop?

I boycott nestle for more reasons than PA but it started when I called a few years ago and was told the choc. chips would soon have a 'may contain' label. I asked if the manufacturing process had changed and she said no. So I asked if it was unsafe all along and she said 'I guess so'. I wasn't happy. At the same time, nestle had the slice and bake cookies with no warning on the label even though they told me that the nut ones are run on the same lines. They couldn't give me a reason why they neglected to label them, but it made me not trust the rest of their labelling all of a sudden. I'm also participating in the WHO boycott of nestle, but that is not PA related (I don't buy any nestle products, even stouffers, libby's, etc). I buy chocolate chips from Guittard (sam's club) or Kroger brand for the non-semi-sweet varieties. I think Hershey is supposed to be safe also.
Gale