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Wheat Free (and other allergens)

post #1 of 11
11/25/04 at 5:41pm
Thread Starter 
Hey oh

What do you do to accommodate specific allergens in food ingredients?

By way of example, having read every label of every brand of soy sauce sold locally to me, I have not found one that is wheat free. I know that siliacs disease is too common a disease for there not to be a wheat free version, but I have not encountered it.

So, in looking at a recipe that has such an ingredient, how do you go about figuring out what to substitute, or do you simply leave that ingredient out?

Among my family members, there is intolerance's to full allergies to wheat, refined sugar, chocolate, red peppers, oranges, cashews, pistachios, tomatoes.... Makes cooking a real adventure at times, but I can easily leave these things out as ingredients, but when they are embedded in a product...
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post #2 of 11
12/5/04 at 8:16pm

Gluten Intolerance

A while ago I had a personal chef client that was allergic to everything (or so it seemed) and with the help of a gluten intolerant friend of mine I wrote some stuff on Gluten Intolerance that you may find of interest.

http://www.restaurantedge.com/index.phtml?catid=1768
http://www.restaurantedge.com/index.phtml?catid=1769

As far as substitutions etc. it depends.

If the elimination of the product is going to have an effect on the final product of course you do not want to eliminate it. As far as the soy sauce, there are alot of wheat free soy sauces on the market. Perhaps try to look in health food stores if you can't find them on your grocery store shelf. Or perhaps look for Tamari's instead of Soy Sauces.

If you have any further questions, feel free to leave it here or drop me an email.

Peace,
Cheffy
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post #3 of 11
10/22/08 at 9:22pm
Here are one wheat-free recipes
Note that these are WHEAT-free and not "GLUTEN"-free. They can also be made
totally dairy-free. [They can also be made with ordinary white wheat flour :)]

Sue

Monster Cookies

dessert/cookie
adapted from Boston Globe 9/11/91
Makes 32
ovo-lacto

1/2 cup glutinous rice flour (or regular flour)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vegatable shortening (margerine if you're OK with it)
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1t vanilla
1 1/3 cup oats
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 325 deg. Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in
small bowl.

In a large mixing bowl, beat margerine, peanut butter, sugars, egg and
vanilla until well blended. Turn mixer to low and add flour mix, oats,
raisins, nuts and chips.

Drop by rounded teaspoons about 1 1/2 inches apart onto lightly greased
cookie sheeet. Bake 13 - 15 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool on
racks.
------------------------------------
anna jennifer
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post #4 of 11
10/22/08 at 10:53pm
There is a very good product which is widely available throughout the world and I have seen it in the US - it is called Tamari and it is a wheat free soy sauce
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post #5 of 11
10/23/08 at 4:37am
Tamari is significantly tastier than soy sauce.
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post #6 of 11
10/23/08 at 4:48am
As someone who deals with allergens on a daily basis I will tell you that there are a few wheat free Soy Sauces on the market, you can find them at some of the nicer grocers like Whole Foods, Fresh Market and Wegmans. DO NOT just go out and by a bottle of Tamari they are not all WHEAT FREE!!!! Tamari is simply Japanese Soy Sauce that is made from the fermentation of Miso and Miso Based Products. Yamasa and Kikkoman from Japan can be found wheat free. If you have a wheat allergy make sure you are buying pure and real soy sauce not something made from HVP's and Yeast Extracts, they will have glutens hidden in the formulation for flavor and sweetness. Try the grocers and if you live in an area that has a "China Town" or a well stocked Asian market go there and dont be afraid to ask.
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post #7 of 11
10/23/08 at 5:02am
la choy. kraft is very good about labeling allergens in it's products.
kathee
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post #8 of 11
10/23/08 at 5:28am
I do not have any confidence in reading labels. The FDA does really not police them thoroughly. Example a product says spices?? which ones?? a product says water, is the water treated with floride or hypochloride?? you dont know., because every state may treat it a different way. In todays world its the roll of the dice. I have a customer thats alergic to raw tomato but can eat cooked. Therefore she is not alergic to tomato, but an alergin or enzyme in the raw tomato, which could also be consummed in another product which heat destroys.
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post #9 of 11
10/23/08 at 6:00am
Chef Ed,
As someone who is a chef and scientist in the manufcturing part of the food industry I will tell you that the USDA and FDA take allergen labeling very seriously with shutdowns occuring for those who dont label or mislabel allergens. The caviat to that is that we as manufacturers are only required/asked to label what is called the "Big 8" which includes Peanut, Tree Nut, Dairy, Egg, Soybean, Wheat, Shellfish and Fin fish. You will notice that Gluten isnt on the list nor is Garlic, thats because they arent deemed as a deadly allergen. As for water and whats in it the most controlled and regulated ingredient in the US is actually water and if you look up the regs they are insane. Every city has a set of guidelines they must follow based upon their own water supply, it does vary but its based on local testing. As far as spices, no spices are allergens and therfore dont have to be broken out. Hope this helps
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post #10 of 11
10/24/08 at 5:52am
Chefhow;
I can only go by the experiences I have run into.
Like you in manufacturing, many years ago I worked for WR Grace on the development of a sealed type of cooking, cooled by liquid nit. then held at 30' in a double compressor fridge/froster/cooler, with a 30 day shelf life without freezing.
The FDA came up with guidlines for this new type of cookery(originally French in nature and developed there) they knew nothing about it or the process, we had to educate them. They sent a load of clipboard carrying people into the experimental kitchens who knew nothing about food.
As you know in large batch cookery sometimes products and ingredients are not evenly disbursed. We developed liquid spices for this reason, also to kill the bacterial components of the spices(ex. Black Pepper)
Maybe today they are a bit stricter, however , 1 pound of ground meat in a market could come from cattle from 5 sources or countries for that matter., this to me is scary.
As far as inspection of water, West Palm Beach Fl. had an episode a few monthes ago, That water was backing up into fresh water system, it took them monthes to find out and they tried to hide it.
Also 800,000 tons of fish was imported into US last year 14000 tons were inspected? Sorry I have no confidence in them . :o
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post #11 of 11
10/24/08 at 5:57am

USDA is VERY different from the FDA and they follow different rules, regs and guidelines. Technically the USDA is on a much shorter leash and follows tighter regs but I personally dont see it that way. I so however understand your point and know EXACTLY where you are coming from and what you are tallking about.
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