Spices which have a warning label

[theboosingers]

We shop at Aldis and all of their spices come with the allergen warning that they may contain wheat, milk, or soy. What do I do? Do I have to go buy all new spices? Could this throw off my families whole30 experience?

[ShannonM816]

As long as those things are not actually listed as ingredients, this is fine. Products with this warning label are often produced in plants that also produce items containing those allergens, so they include a warning so that people who are really highly allergic to those items can avoid them in case of cross-contamination due to equipment not being cleaned thoroughly, but for Whole30 purposes, as long as they didn't actually add those items into the spices intentionally, it's fine.

[Karen_Suep]

Thanks for posting this question and the answer! I was wondering similarly for other foods. Even though I have no known allergies, I was wondering about the effect of cross contamination with whole30

[ShannonM816]

Thanks for posting this question and the answer! I was wondering similarly for other foods. Even though I have no known allergies, I was wondering about the effect of cross contamination with whole30

 

For most people, there won't be any kind of effect -- the warning label doesn't even mean that there is absolutely, positively, for sure any of those things present -- but for people who have life threatening allergies to one of those ingredients, even the tiniest bit could cause issues. I've read about people with peanut allergies who just walked sort of close to a peanut vendor at an amusement park while the wind was blowing just right to blow peanut dust toward them, and they had the kind of reaction that they had to use their epi pen for -- those are the kinds of allergies that the warnings are meant for, both to allow people to avoid that kind of reaction, and to cover the company's backside if someone does use the product and has a reaction -- the company can say, but we said it right there on the label, it's not our fault they chose to have it anyway.

[Karen_Suep]

I totally understand the reasoning for it. I have friends with severe allergies and there was a time when I was pretty strictly gluten free (to the point of avoiding cross contamination) to see if it'd help with physical ailments (but now I can't tell if the GF or reduced intake of carbs after a LADA diagnosis helped more...) I just wasn't sure for the sake of w30

[theboosingers]

I understood for allergy reasons, I just wanted to make sure I was going to still be compliant if I used them. Thanks for all the responses!!