Talking Allergies

http://www.canada.com/news/national/Gra ... story.html

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DD 12 yrs -no allergies
4 yr old DS - asthma/eczema Anaphylactic to Peanuts, all tree nuts, sesame , all pea/lentil legumes, gelatin.
Allergic to trees, grass,ragweed, feathers, dander, mold and dust.
Outgrew eggs, fish, shellfish

ALLERGY ALERT – UNDECLARED PEANUTS IN CERTAIN MISPACKED QUAKER BRAND CHEWY GRANOLA BARS VALUE PACKS

Audio clips available at http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/cor ... aude.shtml.


OTTAWA, November 24, 2010 - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Quaker Canada are warning people with allergies to peanuts not to consume certain Quaker brand Chewy Granola Bars Value Packs described below.

The affected Quaker brand Chewy Granola Bars Value Packs may have been mispacked with Quaker brand Dipps granola bars that contain peanuts. The individual granola bars within the value packs are correctly labelled and declare peanuts, where present.

The affected product, Quaker brand Chewy Granola Bars Value Pack, 14 bars, 364 g, bears UPC 0 55577 10742 3. All lot codes are affected by this alert.

This product has been distributed nationally.

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product.

Consumption of this product may cause a serious or life-threatening reaction in persons with allergies to peanuts.

The manufacturer, Quaker Canada, Mississauga, ON, is voluntarily recalling the affected product from the marketplace. The CFIA is monitoring the effectiveness of the recall.

For more information, consumers and industry can call one of the following numbers:

Quaker Canada at 1-800-267-6287

CFIA at 1 800 442-2342 / TTY 1 800 465-7735 (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday).

For information on peanut, one of the nine most common food allergens, visit the Food Allergens web page at: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fss ... erge.shtml.

For information on all food recalls, visit the CFIA’s Food Recall Report at: http://active.inspection.gc.ca/eng/corp ... pp_dbe.asp.

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Moderator
Daughter: asthma, allergies to egg, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, most legumes (not soy and green beans) & penicillin. Developing hayfever type allergies.
Husband: no allergies
Me: Oral Allergy Syndrome, Allergic to Birch trees

Unfortunately, Allergic Living has learned that a young boy had a reaction to one of the peanut-containing bars. He was treated in hospital and has been released.

We are endeavouring to find out more about that incident from Quaker, more about how the pn-containing bars got into these supposedly pn-free packages. AL will post a news story over the weekend on the homepage.

In the meantime, here's what we have from the press release minutes ago:



and:


http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/arch ... c8190.html

Toll-free hotline for product questions: 1-800-267-6287.

Once again, shows the dependence those with allergies have on correct labeling. http://www.allergicliving.com/petitions/food-labelling/

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Allergic to soy, peanut, shellfish, penicillin

As soon as I read this recall yesterday I forwarded it to DD's school, as there are 21 anaphylactic kids in this school. I was afraid for all the kids who's parents didn't see the recall before packing lunches. I am glad to see the that Quaker is contacting school boards as part of this recall.

I'm sure that this young boy has had quite a scary experience, thankfully it sounds like he is ok.

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DD 12 yrs -no allergies
4 yr old DS - asthma/eczema Anaphylactic to Peanuts, all tree nuts, sesame , all pea/lentil legumes, gelatin.
Allergic to trees, grass,ragweed, feathers, dander, mold and dust.
Outgrew eggs, fish, shellfish

So scary, it makes me wonder about the safey of bars in other packages. We buy the jumbo box of chocoate chip bars.

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DSs 12, 12, 14 all PA

Hi All,

Here is the link to our news story with the latest information we obtained from Quaker:

http://allergicliving.com/index.php/201 ... d-product/

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Associate Editor at Allergic Living.
Allergies to all nuts and legumes except soy and green beans.

Thanks for posting the A.L. article Lisa.

Quaker seems to be doing their best to rectify a potentially horrific slip up. Accidents happen, how they are dealt with is the true test of a company. I think Quaker has done a great job at getting the information out there quickly. First, save lives, second, look at how it happened.

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DD 12 yrs -no allergies
4 yr old DS - asthma/eczema Anaphylactic to Peanuts, all tree nuts, sesame , all pea/lentil legumes, gelatin.
Allergic to trees, grass,ragweed, feathers, dander, mold and dust.
Outgrew eggs, fish, shellfish

Yes, Quaker knows they messed up and I think they know that a lot of consumers could potentially lose confidence in them. Which is why they're spending a lot of time and energy (and probably money) to make sure no other reactions occur now and that this never happens again. I at least appreciate that they're working so fast to rectify things and I'm at least glad the young boy is doing fine now.

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Associate Editor at Allergic Living.
Allergies to all nuts and legumes except soy and green beans.

This happened to our 5 year old twice in the month of November.. He was hospitalized from Nov 5th-7th due to an anaphylaxis "peanut" reaction, he was at school this day and he attends a "peanut free" school.. He has no other know allergies so we were not sure where he was coming into contact with peanuts... Again on the 25th of November this occured again he was rushed to emerg and than transfered to CHEO in Ottawa this time he was in hospital 6 days... We went through hell and back as parents trying to figure out where this was coming from.. Even as going as far to having the school send out a newsletter reminding parents to wash their childs hands and brush their teeth after consuming peanut butter....Upon returning home a friend dropped off a notice about the recall, sure enough we do purchase this product and have out of confidence for the past 4 years.. This has hit way to close to home... We have been in contact with Anaphylaxis Canada which inturn notified quaker canada... They have been in contact with us and have now passed it down the chain.... If anyone has any info on the other child this happened to could you please forward my contact info onto the parents as we would like to converse with them.... I do not feel Quaker is doing all it can with this recall as there are still some school boards that did not have this info.. We went to the doctors for a follow up appointment and he knew nothing about this nor did the doctors at Cheo during our stay!!!

Katrina, I am so glad that your son ended up being ok, what a very scary ordeal for your 5 year old as well as for the entire family. Do you mind me asking what symptoms/reaction your son had which required such a long hospital stay? Whatever it was it must have been terrifying for you.

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DD 12 yrs -no allergies
4 yr old DS - asthma/eczema Anaphylactic to Peanuts, all tree nuts, sesame , all pea/lentil legumes, gelatin.
Allergic to trees, grass,ragweed, feathers, dander, mold and dust.
Outgrew eggs, fish, shellfish

Thank You it was very terrifying.... It started with wheezing, than flushing of the skin, a constant cough, rash, vomitting than loss of oxygen... This was so frusturating as he attends a "peanut free" school so the teacher did not administer his epipen insted gave him his ventalin puffer as she thought it was asthma.. And called home 1.5 hours after doing so when his condition worsened....

Oh Katrina, I don't even know what to say. Waiting to give the epipen, is that what caused his symptoms to escalate?


Was the school under the impression that a reaction wasn't possible as the school is peanut free????

WOW..Symptoms of an allergic reaction.....induced asthma-WHEEZING/vomiting/rash ETC...!!! I bet you have had a good long talk with the school staff now. Tattoo on his forehead GIVE EIPEN, CALL 911 THEN CALL MOM AND DAD!

DS starts Jr. K next year and this is exactly the scenario which is giving me cold sweats at night. If DS has a reaction that is one thing, if the school staff wait to call me or wait to see if the reaction gets worse before giving him his epipen...that is what FREAKS ME OUT.

You must need a lot of chocolate right now. Or a bottle of wine with a straw!!!

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DD 12 yrs -no allergies
4 yr old DS - asthma/eczema Anaphylactic to Peanuts, all tree nuts, sesame , all pea/lentil legumes, gelatin.
Allergic to trees, grass,ragweed, feathers, dander, mold and dust.
Outgrew eggs, fish, shellfish

Katrina,
Be sure to register with Anaphylaxis Canada. They email out allergy alerts such as this one. Also, I don't know how far you are away from Ottawa but many people even on the outskirts join our anaphylaxis support group. OASG! Even if you can't come to meetings you will have access to our chat forum. Any local stores, restaurants, items etc. you could find out about and support of course. Allergy alerts such as this one would also be emailed to you.


Glad you found us on this A.L. forum, it is unfortunate it had to be under such horrific circumstances for you.

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DD 12 yrs -no allergies
4 yr old DS - asthma/eczema Anaphylactic to Peanuts, all tree nuts, sesame , all pea/lentil legumes, gelatin.
Allergic to trees, grass,ragweed, feathers, dander, mold and dust.
Outgrew eggs, fish, shellfish

Wow Katrina, that is scary. I'm angry at the school's reaction - there is no such thing as "peanut-free", and they need remedial training. Download an anaphylaxis plan from the AC website, and contact a local AAIA educator to come to the school to train the teachers. Unacceptable.

Did you actually buy some of the recalled granola bars? I did, but ours were all appropriately labelled, and were the correct bars inside the box. From what I understood, all the individual bars were labelled correctly, but some "Dipps" bars were packaged in the "chewy" boxes by mistake. The Dipps bars are not peanut-free, but the chewy chocolate chip were OK.

Katrina I hope your little guy is OK now. I hope that this scary event will prompt dialogue within the school regarding how serious this medical condition is and how important it is to follow the food allergy protocol.

Here is the link to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA): http://tinyurl.com/2bn58dd
If you sign up with them, you will receive notification of recalls promptly.
CFIA manages all food recalls in Canada except for those foods manufactured and sold only in Quebec.

If you purchase products from Quebec, you should also register with Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation to receive food recall press releases for foods recalled by the Department. https://web.mapaq.gouv.qc.ca/bak/rappel ... &&langue=2

The silver lining in this (if this is one) is that your child will remember enough of this event to 'get' how serious this is. Some of those children who only experienced reactions as infants don't get it. (Meredeth Broussard comes to mind. She penned a scathing article on food allergies and how it's not such a big deal...seems she has food allergies and never forgave her month for not allowing her to eat chocolate as a child)

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Moderator
Daughter: asthma, allergies to egg, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, most legumes (not soy and green beans) & penicillin. Developing hayfever type allergies.
Husband: no allergies
Me: Oral Allergy Syndrome, Allergic to Birch trees