May contain: do you dare?

I do not let my son eat foods that "may contain"--it's not worth the risk to me.
Somebody somewhere at that company decided that there was enough of a risk to put that label on their food.
I'm not as worried about "produced in a plant. . ." but I've haven't run across any foods yet that have this label that I feed to him. I think I bought an Uncle Ben's Rice Bowl once that had that warning but it was for me not my son.
Hope this helps. Deanna

I do not let my PA son eat food with any peanut or nut warning, either "may contain" or "in a plant that processes" etc. However, I do not call manufacturers either (except in a few unusual cases), so I realize he is probably eating "may contain" products that simply don't have the warning, since not all companies use the warning.

I do sometimes let my PA kid eat foods w/ warning labels. We have never had a problem with any of them, even though she has a very severe allergy. She has eaten M&M's many times (even though I know others swear they are massively contaminated, the Mars customer service reps have been very reassuring & informed & my kid has never had a problem), she has eaten KitKats & many others too. I do stick to major manufacturers, I never let her eat any of these questionable items unless we are at home & both parents are home, & I do avoid Nestles products... not because I think they are any more careless than any of the other manufacturers, but just because I can't bring myself to let my child eat something that says 'Peanut traces' on the actual ingredient list without even a 'May Contain' caveat. I also would *never* let my kid eat anything from a local bakery or an ice cream store. Those two are the kinds of places that are most likely to have a cross-contamination problem, in my opinion and usually they don't have any warning labels on their products.
It is funny how everyone has to make that determination of how careful to be while not completely making their kid feel totally different from the other kids around them & everyone does it very differently. I like hearing what other people have done, but ultimately I make my own decisions. It is a hard set of choices we face & we each do the best we can for our kids.

18.2% (4 of 22) "may contain peanut" contained traces of peanut
12.5% (2 of 16) "manufacturer on shared equipment" contained traces of peanut
12.5% (1 of 8) "manufacturer in a facility that also processes peanut" contained traces of peanut
20.8% (5 of 24) where peanut was listed at the end of the ingredients list contained traces of peanuts
Peanut present was measured at concentrations from 1 to 2500 parts per million.
This study was done by LM Niemann, JJ Hlywka and SL Hefle and presented at this year's AAAAI meeting.
-Wow! I figured out how to paste! This comes from SAN103 who posted this info in the MANUFACTURERS (SAFE/UNSAFE) forum undre "Quakers Rice Cakes" (pg#2).
With nearly a 20% chance of containing peanuts in the "may contain" stuff, I choose not to gamble.
I've tried finding the aforementioned study on the net but no success. Does anyone have a link?

We do not buy anything with the words nut or peanut anywhere on the package. For me the study ( it is posted somewhere on this board) and the comments from Dr. Scherier at the FAN conference reinforced my decision. Something like 20% of foods manufactured on the same line contained actual traces. He also said that the manufacturers using those warnings are usually them legimately. It doesn't appear to be a CYA (cover your a**) thing. I feel like it is just one less thing to worry about and it basically limits just a bunch of crapola from our diets!
Linda

I wonder what percentage of companies use the warnings (they're still voluntary, right?) I do tend to stick with major manufacturers and am leery of little companies I never heard of, but we sometimes use store brands.
I am especially nervous about bread lately. My son has had hives a few times right after eating a sandwich but he's allergic to sesame and I tend to think that's a cross-reaction with another bread containing sesame (his peanut reactions have been much more severe than just hives). I've never seen a "may contain" statement on any bread so I just try to avoid companies that have any exotic whole grain/seed/nut breads. I'm not real thrilled to give him white bread, but it seems like it might be safer.

I NEVER purchase "may contain". I have yet to come across the label "processed in a facility that has nuts in it" but I would probably not buy them either. I stick to large companies, do not buy no name, etc. unless I have checked on the actual product with the mfg. Also, should my child have a reaction to a product that became cross-contaminated in a factory, when it shouldn't have, then I would tighten things up further.
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